Your Shadow Eyes
by NoLogique
Summary: A Naruto AU highschool fic. Naturo, pursued by dark creatures, comes to a new town, and a new school. He meets Sasuke, whose fierce determination and dark center intrigues him, and encounters challenges and romance. Angst, slash, NaruxSask, abuse, R&R!
1. Chapter 1

There was a chilly wind coming up the street, tearing leaves along with it. It pattered against the parked car's windshield, and Naruto, standing beside it, had to raise his hand, knocking leaves away out of his eyes.

When they were gone, it was still there; the quiet streets and houses and trees. Valehill County.

"Aren't we the quiet one," Iruka said quietly, lifting a box out of the car. He regarded the boy for a moment, and then looked at the old creaking house beyond the yard. "Looks like a nice place, doesn't it?"

Naruto shrugged. He went to the back of the station wagon, picked up a box and started up towards the house.

"Hey, wait," Iruka said, reaching for him. "You don't have to--"

Too late, Naruto was already heading up to the house. Iruka sighed. All of these boxes were _his_. Naruto's only possessions were in that backpack the kid wore. He didn't have to be carrying Iruka's pack-rat quirks all the way up that house's stairs.

Naruto pushed open the door, and it creaked open, dust billowing out. The house had obviously not seen anyone for quite some time, and it seemed almost dead, a house that had forgotten how to be a house. He walked in, dropped the box in the middle of the kitchen, straightened.

Oh, how quiet this life will be. Maybe. Iruka was in his mid-twenties, way too young to do what he was doing, harbouring an orphan in some town. It would be very different, though. Before, in the other foster homes, he began to get used to the concept of the _cycle of abuse_. The honeymoon period was always the best, when everyone was smiling.

Iruka was, of course, different. He had the training, he had the patience. Naruto had met others like him. Iruka didn't need for him to smile because he believed he would smile eventually. Why not? A smile for Iruka one day, nice little payment for this.

Dependent. Naruto hated the word. Just drop me off in a ditch somewhere; I'll get by. But no, this society was, of course, obsessed with giving everyone under eighteen a chance at life, and Iruka would do his best to give Naruto a chance.

"Right," Iruka said, appearing in the doorway, hefting a box. "Pizza tonight, a couple of movies, and then first day of school tomorrow. That sound good? Things not moving too fast?"

With Iruka, life moved by with the mute button on. Naruto never needed to rush, because Iruka would never get angry; it was the training he had. "No," he said. "Not too fast."

He clucked his tongue. Another highschool. Whoo.

Naruto's room would be in the attic above. Naruto has chosen it himself. Iruka was, again, in his mid-twenties, and Naruto would be damned if his presence would screw up his guardian's social life. Hidden in the attic, it'd be quiet enough for Iruka to have anyone over.

He set his backpack in the corner of the small room, and peered out the window. He was struck again by how huge the tree in the yard was, its branches nearly obscuring the light coming in. It was autumn, though, and the leaves were yellowing, turning orange. Through them he had a good view of the street.

Maybe I'll be safe here, he thought.

And outside the window, he saw him: a young boy, walking alone down the streets, dressed in black, dark hair swinging around his face.

_Closed_ body language, Iruka, the trained social worker, would call that: hands in pocket, face down, the collar of the shirt obscuring his mouth. _There_ was a boy who wasn't interested in social interaction.

"You want to make more friends?" Iruka had once said. "Keep your posture open -- look confident, and stay relaxed. Makes it easier to talk to people, makes it easier for people to talk to you."

Naruto liked talking to people. People around him just tended to die, that was all. There were the shadows following him, and there was his own violence, burbling inside. One of his foster parents had called him a monster. Naruto'd never hurt anyone though. Not badly, at least.

What to do with all that anger? Iruka said a good way was to either talk to him, or to a friend, or write it down. There were those who couldn't control it, of course. That girl in his old home had BPD, used to cut herself. Naruto could understand that: physical pain often obscured emotional pain in a big way.

Sometimes, however, Naruto didn't feel physical. He felt a lot like the shadows that pursued him, just a flat version of a human being. There was only him, after all, and few friends, if any, and that backpack in the corner of the room. He didn't leave marks like other people, didn't make imprints. Iruka would mark this house, he knew, would set down that old phonograph of his and put up his posters and put on his jazz music.

Naruto unclasped the lock on the window (a _clasp?_ How old was this house?) and forced it open. "Hey! Hey you!"

The boy in black turned to regard him.

"What's your name?"

Hesitation: a pause, and then, quietly, "Sasuke. Why do you ask?"

"Just curiosity! I'm Naruto! I'm new in town!"

"Are you now? Well. Welcome, I guess."

"You want to hang out?"

"Not really."

_Closed_ body language. An introvert of some degree. Iruka's jargon filled Naruto's head. God, he thought; I've spent too long in the hands of social workers. "Oh," he said. "Okay."

But even as Sasuke turned away, and Naruto closed the window, the boy's darks eyes were burned on Naruto's eyelids, like an afterimage. _Introvert_, Iruka's voice said in his head. _Anti-social. He'll come around. Just have to be friendly. Friendly and open_.

Making friends was something new to Naruto, but after all, this was a new life. He sat down, and opened his backpack.

Something out of the corner of his eye: a mirrored surface. He saw himself, and forming behind him, a shadowy figure.

_Damn._ Naruto grabs the mirror, forced open the window and hurled it out. It spun out, flickering, landed somewhere in the thicket.

They're here for me already, he thought, sitting down; goddamn it. They're here for me already.

"Naruto?" Iruka's voice called from the stairs. "What kind of pizza do you want?"


	2. Chapter 2

Sai sat down next to his locker, flicking a small red ball between his hands. He hated his new haircut. Hated it really, really badly.

Across the hall, sitting next next to her own locker, was Hinata, hunched down, staring into her sketchbook, looking, as always, like she was desperately trying not to be noticed.

Sasuke appeared, dark hair hanging over his intense eyes, hands in pockets. "Check it out."

Hinata realized that Sasuke was talking to _her_, and nearly had a heart attack. She looked up, clutching her sketchbook. "Wha-?"

"Look."

Hinata looked over, and Sai followed her gaze. There was a new kid over there, by the principal's office, blond haired, orange jumpsuit, a sort of couched, feline look about him.

"Bit of a strange kid, I think," Sasuke said. This being the most anyone had said to Hinata in a while, she looked like her head was going to explode. "He's forward. Asked me to hang out with him the other day."

"Nothing like a little self-confidence," Sai said.

"_Nice_ hair-cut," a voice said.

A vision of pink, Sakura appeared next to Sasuke, and smiled at Sai.

"I hate it," Sai said, standing up. "I told them to make it look like Audrey Hepburn's hair." He touched his short black hair. "They made it into this."

"You look like a pixie. I think it's _hot_."

"It's not Audrey-hot."

"Why the obsession with Audrey?"

Sai said nothing. After the haircut, he had returned to his room, knelt down beside his bed and looked up at the massive poster of _Breakfast at Tiffany_-era Audrey, and said, "I'm sorry" over and over again.

"Again," he said to Sasuke. "Nothing like self-confidence."

"Yeah," Sasuke said. "I'm sure he'll fit in here."

Bells rang, doors opened, students ran. Naruto found himself jostled side to side past Sasuke and the rest and into the first class of the day.

It'd been a long time since he'd been to a highschool that was an ordinary size, with classes that allowed for the teacher to learn his frigging name. He found a desk and sat down. Ahead of him he saw that dark boy, Sasuke, sitting down a few desks ahead next to a vibrantly pink girl.

Philosophy class. How nice. How the hell did _that_ get onto the curriculum at a highschool?

He got his answer when the teacher lurched into the room -- a tall thin man with spiked grey hair, a drooping eyelid, a bandanna pulled over one eye, old tweeds, and a gait that reminded Naruto of a leisurely sloth.

Naruto glanced at his timetable. Philosophy -- first period -- taught by Kakashi Hatake. Huh.

Bam. The teacher fell into his chair, and his feet came up and rested on the desk. "Eh. Sai, could you take attendance?"

Sai's voice was low: "_Seriously?_"

"So shall it be written, so shall it be done. Get to it."

Sai pulled himself to his feet, walked to the front of the table, grabbed the attendance sheet, stood there.

A blonde girl next to Naruto leaned forwards and said, "Where'd you get your clothes, Sai? The Sally-Ann?"

"Oh _c'mon_!" Sai said. "The teachers _right _here!"

Kakashi waved his hand idly through the hair. "Sticks and stones, Sai."

"I'm getting you after class, Ino," Sai said. "Right. First name on the list--"

The girl named Ino leaned over towards Naruto and smiled. "What's your name?"

"Naruto."

"I'm Ino. You're new here?"

"Very."

A ball of paper slapped against the back of Naruto's head. Naruto glanced back.

Crazy eyes: white on white: wild red hair: pale skin. Teeth were bared from the boy behind him. "_Turn_ around."

"You got a problem?"

Ino spun around. "Leave him alone, Gaara."

"Heh."

Ino turned back and muttered, "The Sand Siblings are such _assholes_."

Be friendly, Iruka had told Naruto, so Naruto turned back to Gaara and said, "I'm Naruto." He held out his hand to him.

A flash of red: Naruto cried out, and stared at the compass needle sticking into his hand. He looked up at Gaara's widening grin.

Gaara and his chair fell back, crashing against the ground. Naruto was on his feet, his knuckles torn from its impact against Gaara's chin.

The class was silent, staring at him.

"Well," Kakashi said, regarding him apathetically. "That didn't take long. Principal's office time, boys."

That was the horrible thing, really. Naruto didn't even register getting up, didn't notice his fist knocking Gaara back. It had been a subconscious response.

_No one's completely violent inside_, Iruka had assured him once. _There's just anger and how you deal with anger._

Naruto had taught himself exercises for dealing with anger before. They never seemed to work.

"Well," the principal, Mr. Sarutobi, said, leaning back in his desk. "What shall we do with you two, hm? We've got one of the school's regular problem cases, and we have our newest addition to our ranks."

Naruto didn't like the principal's office. It was too symmetrical, two perfectly squared windows set two meters apart from each other, wherein Mr. Sarutobi sat perfectly still in the center, fingers clutched together in front of him.

Naruto was about to say something, when Gaaru spoke up: "My fault, sir. I provoked him." He bowed his head. "He shouldn't be punished. I should."

What the hell?

As Naruto stared at him, Gaara glanced towards him, a look of pure malevolence in those white-on-white eyes.

"Oh, yeah, sure, _that_ makes sense." Mr. Sarotobi looked out one of the perfect-square windows. "Let's let Mr. Uzumaki off with a warning, shall we, for his incredibly open display of physical violence. _Yeah_, that'll put this school on the map. Regular example of discipline, us. Question, Mr. Uzumaki, what possessed you to actually punch a fellow student?"

"He stabbed my hand."

"Well, that's unacceptable. But there _are_ structures in place to deal with that sort of thing." He looked back at them. "But I suppose you thought you were acting in defense. Detention then. You're spending lunch in your respective home rooms. But, Mr. Uzumaki -- you hurt another of my students, and I'm going to seriously regret adding you to my school."

"Uh huh."

ooo

Detention.

Naruto sat down in the desk, looked around his home room. There was a plastic skeleton hanging up next to the books. Scientific diorama or just something anticipating Halloween?

He glanced back and saw that Sai and Sasuke had joined him, sitting behind him. Naruto looked back at his notebook, wondering what schoolwork he could possibly get done during this time.

"That was awesome, by the way."

He looked back. Sai smiled, reached into his pocket, took out a cigarette, stuck it into his mouth.

"What was awesome?" Naruto asked.

"Punching Gaara."

"I guess. What are you two in for?"

"I'm in here for smoking on school property," Sai said, lighting his cigarette.

Sasuke shrugged, not looking up. "I just like to come in here to get extra work done."

"Sasuke here has an elitist complex."

"Not listening to you."

"Look at him. Taking his lunch to get some math done. What do you have in that class? 95? 96? Oh, your _precious four percent._"

"Look how easy this is for me to tune you out. I'm tuning you out right now."

"Why are you wearing that?"

Naruto realized this last question was directed towards him. He looked down at his orange tracksuit.

"You look like you're on Death Row," Sai said, letting smoke fall out of his mouth and around his face.

"I run."

Sasuke looked up, looked at him. "You run?"

"Yeah."

Sai smiled. "Ooh, does someone smell a rival?" He looked at Naruto. "Our Sasuke is _very_ threatened by competition."

"You run too?" Naruto asked.

"He does _everything_," Sai said. He poked him in the arm. "Trust fund jerk."

Yes, but he doesn't _have_ to be good at running, Naruto thought; his life doesn't depend on it.

Naruto grinned. "Hey! We should run together sometime! You and me!"

Sasuke looked up at him, stunned. "Uh. Maybe."

"C'mon, it'll be awesome. Running's always more fun if cough -- could you point that thing away from me?"

"Oh," Sai said. "Sorry."

"Smoking's bad for you, you know."

"Audrey does it, and she's the most beautiful woman in the world."

Naruto leapt out of his chair. "But yeah! We should get into training. I'm sure there're some track and field competitions coming up! We could-"

"Where do you get your energy?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Did you want to run today? After school?"

"I'm probably busy."

Sai snorted. "Trust fund jerk," he said.

ooo

Naruto entered the school washroom, found it empty. He scratched his head, and bounced on his feet. Sasuke had a good point: _where_ did he get his energy? He sometimes hated it, the way he could never sit still at times like these.

He went to the tap, twisted it, let the water run out. He splashed his face, looked up.

Oh.

That was one big mirror.

He took a step back, staring at the boiling darkness appearing over his reflection. "No," he said. He looked around for something, _anything_ to shatter the mirror.

_"Naruto_-"

That voice. Naruto was rooted to the spot, staring into his reflection, as a form appeared out of the boiling darkness. Mizuki.

"_We're going to have some fun, Naruto, aren't we_."

Get out, Naruto thought; run, just get out. He took another step back, but the paralysis was already on him.

Mizuki grinned, reached forward; his fingers began to slide through the surface of the mirror into the real world.

_Bang._

The door opened. "Naruto, is it?"

Naruto looked up, shaken out of his paralysis. Kakashi stood there, newspaper under his arm, hand in his tweed coat pocket.

"Shouldn't you be in class?"

Naruto looked back at the mirror. There was just him and his reflection. "Yeah, sir," he said, and pushed past the teacher.

Kakashi watched him go, and stepped into the room. He looked at his reflection in the mirror, staring. "Hm," he said.


	3. Chapter 3

Sai heard them first, the call coming from down the hall as the three of them -- himself, Sasuke and Naruto (looking paler when he came back from his washroom break) -- exited the home room.

"_Sasuke!_"

It was no wonder the Popular Kids were on Sasuke's case. Sasuke had never known how to keep several pans in the fire at once: when he'd first come to the school, he'd focused on the social circles, moved his way up the hierarchies, clambered onto the highest peaks of popularity. That summit climbed, he stopped going to parties, stopped hanging out during lunches, stopped going out to the club, stopped going anywhere, instead focusing on his academics. When he was getting the top marks in the school, to the sudden bewilderment of the faculty, he dropped his grades down and started forming his body, excelling at sports, joining martial art clubs, focusing every minute of his waking life to sculpting this ideal form of himself. When he reached the point where the wiry ditch-digger muscles would give way to actual bulk, he dropped that off again, went back to focusing on grades. Sasuke had to excel at everything, but didn't know how to excel at everything at the same time.

Still, he had once been popular, and the Popular Kids wanted him _back._

The Popular Kids, as a clique, was a subjective, morphic bunch, its ranks constantly shifting. At the top, however, at the height, the kids whose names were never far from the lips of anything in the school, had a kind of borderline-sociopathicly tactical way of interacting with others, and that intimidated Sai to no end.

"Hey, you're that Naruto kid, aren't you?" Temari said, stopping near them, hands on hips, looking designed, looking beautiful. "Heard you punched my brother."

"Oh," Naruto said, standing up straight. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"He deserves it. I love him and all, but he's got some issues."

"Oi, Sasu_kee_," Suigetsu said, leaning over and grinning at him. "You trying out for the show tomorrow, then, uh?"

Sasuke regarded them dispassionately. Back when he was clambering the social ladder, he could afford any amount of emotional availability that was needed at the time. Now he walked through the school like everything was on the bottom of his list. "What show, Suigetsu?"

The Popular Kids: Temari, blond and beautiful, standing in the center, playing with her purse, Suigetsu, lithe and just a little on the psychotic side, though handsome and bland when the situation needed to be, Karin, tall and strange, quiet at times, her odd hairstyle bleeding exoticism, Haku, long-haired, friendly when he wanted to be, and Kabuto, gazing at them intensely.

"The show in the cafeteria, man," Suigetsu said, grabbing Sasuke by the upper arm. "Posters up there and everything-!"

Sai sniffed. "I thought you guys were supposed to maintain an air of calculated indifference."

Karin cocked her head. "Where'd you get your clothes, Sai? The Salvation Army?"

Sai stiffened. "Ino already made that joke today, jerk."

"Yeah, but she didn't mean it."

"_Nar-uto_," Temari said, regarding the boy. "You like to party, Naruto?"

"Uh."

"'Course he likes to party," Kabuto said. He looked around, found a bench in the hallway, sat down. "He looks like a partier. You used to be a partier, didn't you, Sasuke?"

"Sometimes," Sasuke said.

"Sometimes schools need new students," Temari said, not taking her eyes off Naruto. "Shakes things up."

"You look _nice_," Haku said brightly, shaking Naruto's hands.

"Temari, invite him to our party," Kabuto said, pressing his glasses farther back on his nose.

"Naruto, you're invited to our party."

Naruto looked speechless. "Er." Bright grin. "Thanks, guys!"

Ah, Sai thought; the naivety of the inexperienced.

"Wear enough black there, Sasuke?" Karin asked.

Sasuke looked back at her. A slight smirk on the side of his mouth: "Sometimes I wear blue, Karin. And white."

Karin looked away, angry. She glanced at Sai's skirt, smiled and said, "Aren't you supposed to be a guy, Sai?"

"_Fuck_ you."

ooo

"Don't mind them," Temari said, sitting next to Naruto outside the school. "They're a little threatened by Sasuke's new friends."

"More like _disgusted_," Karin said, walking by them.

Temari gave her a _look_ and then looked back at Naruto. It was the end of the day, and classes were over, and a breeze flowed along the cement sidewalks and tousled her hair. Buses in the distance came around the corner, coming up the leaf-strewn streets. It was getting dark, stormclouds building over the church across the street.

"Don't mind Gaara either," she said quietly. "He's gotproblems."

"I don't know about that."

"He _does_. He-- he's got this-- _problem. _He can't, I don't know how to describe it-- it's like he can't _feel_ anything unless he's hurting someone."

Iruka's voice in Naruto's head spoke up with Iruka's jargon: _schizoid personality disorder mixed perhaps with some ASPD. _

"Kabuto does want you to come to his party, though," she said, looking at her shoes.

"Well, I'll admit," Naruto said, "parties _are_ fun."

A brief flash of a smile. "Sometimes."

The bus lurched to a halt in front of them, and with a smile and a wave, Temari was gone, disappearing through its door. Naruto stood up, put his hands in his tracksuit pockets and let the other students pour out of the school towards their freedom.

ooo

Damn, Naruto thought, crouching on the gravel of the school track.

Boiling dark clouds gathered over the trees at the edge of the field. The wind was strong, buffeting his tracksuit and his hair, making the nearby telephone posts creak and the church spire across the street groan. Leaves blew across the gravel.

It'd been way too long since he'd ran last. Now his muscles felt tense, ready. He fell to a crouch, digging his shoes into the gravel. Gravel flew into the air and he was off, making tracks towards the trees on the other end of the field.

"Hey."

Skidding to a halt. Naruto watched the trees ahead of him move. Oh god, he thought; shadows here already?

Someone grabbed him from behind, moving quickly, gripping his wrist and twisting his arms behind his back. Pain spiked up his shoulder, and he fell to one knee. "_Ouch!_"

"Quiet!"

Naruto could feel heavy weight on him and he could smell cologne, strong cologne.

"Kankuro--"

Gaara. He stood by the trees, his eyes staring at Naruto intensely. "Can he move?"

"He _can't _move--" Kankuro hissed.

He was right, Naruto had to admit. Whoever this asshole was, he knew how to trap limbs, render him paralyzed.

"Bring him along," Gaara said, turning back and vanishing into the trees.

The forest was dark inside. Gaara leapt over a small creek, looked about. The light came in through the bare branches above him, but ahead was a copse of thick pine trees, and the shadows there seemed to Naruto as black.

"Let _go_ of me," Naruto said. "C'mon, man, people know where I am."

Gaara glanced back at Kankuro and said, "Think you could block his air passage a bit?"

"_Urk_."

Well, Naruto thought, fighting to breathe; I guess that's the end of conversation.

"Can I show him Karasu, Gaara?" Kankuro asked.

"Later."

"Gaara, _c'mon_."

"Through here."

Moving through the pine trees plunged Naruto into a chilly blindness. When light struck again, he was looking up at the silvered side of stone of a gaunt angel. Kankuro released him, hurling him onto rocky grass. He tumbled into an ice-cold tablet of stone sticking out of the ground. Something fell over -- a glass vase broke, and two roses fell across the grass.

He blinked through the pain, and saw the church spire in the distance, and the wings of the stone angel framing Gaara as he came into view with a strange smile on his face.

Oh, Naruto thought; _graveyard._

"Uh," Kankuro said, crouching and looking around. "Gaara, I didn't think we were coming here."

"What's the problem?" Gaara said, kneeling down and reaching through his pocket.

"This graveyard is haunted."

"God, you're an idiot sometimes-"

Naruto saw the flash of the switchblade appear in Gaara's hand and realized he had to move now. He made it across to Kankuro and kicked the man in the side, knocking him over with a cry. He ran for the trees.

Gaara was fast, much faster than he had any right to be. Naruto got his arm up in time and got a gashed arm for his trouble. He cried out and fall back, Gaara cutting the air in front of him.

Gaara's eyes were wide; he was practically frothing at the mouth.

Naruto tried to swallow down the stunned shocking fire appearing in his arm, and rolled to his knees. Gaara kicked him in the chest and he fell back against a tombstone, knocking his head hard enough to cross his eyes. Yellow spots floated over two versions of Gaara, coming towards him.

"I'm a forgettable person," Gaara said. "That's the kind of guy I am -- forgettable, but when I leave you here I bet I'll be remembered."

Oh good god. Naruto threw himself to the side, and Gaara missed, the knife glancing off the tombstone. Naruto got him in the thigh, and Gaara went to one knee. Scrambling to his feet, Naruto tried to make it to the trees but Gaara's hand lashed out, caught his ankle, and Naruto ate dirt. Red spot from the pain. Tumbling sky. Naruto skidded across an ice patch (_ice? in this weather?_) and smacked into a huge headstone.

He couldn't get up, his palms slipped across the ice (_since when is ice so slippery? and why is ice ever _there). The best he managed was getting to his knees. He looked up. His mouth opened, and beneath him his reflection in the perfect ice did the same. He became uncomfortably aware of his own warm blood running down his arm, beading at his fingers, dripping onto the ice, where the liquid spread out like flowers. A massive headstone this was, and perched above it, a winged anti-christ figure, monstrous face open, roaring at him. Who the _hell_ put this up.

He read the grave name : _Orochimaru._

The grave was covered in frost, and when he touched it, it was icy to the touch.

Gaara's footsteps behind him; Naruto moved to the side, and the knife glanced off this headstone. Feet up -- oh shit -- and Naruto hit the icy on his shoulder -- goddamn, why was it so _slippery_. He stared at himself, his reflection's cheek pressed against his as he slid back on the ice. When he lifted his head, he left a string of blood from the cut in his temple and the surface.

"You move around too much," Gaara said, turning towards him, knife flashing in the cold light.

Oh god no, not here, not to _him._

A flash of black.

Sasuke looked like he was _floating_. He was in the air, foot plunged into Gaara's solar plexus, driving the young man now into the rocks and the grass. His feet didn't even touch the ground; he came back up, coat billowing about him, and landed on one of the graveyards, dark hair falling about his face.

"Naruto!" Sai shouted, running into the graveyard, cigarette not leaving her mouth.

"Sasuke-" Kankuro sputtered, stepping back, tripping over a rock and falling back over.

"Naruto," Sai said, kneeling beside him. "You're bleeding. Sasuke, you've got a phone, right. Call the cops, call the hospital-!"

But Sasuke's eyes were watching Gaara, hawklike, watching the boy climb to his feet.

"Sasuke-" Gaara said, looking about for the knife. "You're dead-"

Sasuke watched him dispassionately, almost fascinated.

The knife had landed somewhere on the ice, so Gaara ran for it, sliding across the slippery surface, reaching for it.

That's when it happened.

Gaara's scream was the worst part about it, and it was what jostled Naruto out of his pain. He sat up and watched in horror as the arms came out of the ice, grabbed Gaara and pulled him down _into_ the reflection on the ice.

"Oh _what the fuck-!_" Sai said, clambering back.

"We have to get out of here," Naruto said, crawling back. "We have to get out of here, get out of here, get out of here-"

The blood pooling around him made the going along the ice even slicker, and he fell back, his eyes not leaving the ice. He saw Sasuke in the corner of his vision, watching the ice, stock still, paralyzed.

Get to the cell phone, Naruto thought; call Iruka, call Iruka.

Mizuki was already crawling out of the reflection. He stood up, that same sick grin on his face. He held Gaara's switchblade in the palm of his hand. The wind played with his ponytail. "Nice knife," he said, "but I like mine more."

And from his belt he pulled out this massive blade the side of Naruto's forearm.

"Oh god," Naruto said.

"Come on, nine-tailed fox," Miziki said. "Let's see some spilled intestine."


	4. Chapter 4

In the waning light, Sasuke's form on the tombstone began to turn into shadow. The wind picked up, and leaves blew across the graveyard, some of them catching onto Mizuki's pants as he advanced towards the terrified Naruto.

"Get away from him," Sasuke said.

The storm broke as Sasuke leapt. Lightning flashed and Naruto's world blazed into radiant yellow for a split-second. The thunder -- good god, was thunder supposed to be that loud? It sounded like someone dropped a mountain onto the graveyard -- roared and night closed back in. Naruto saw, in the darkness, Sasuke strike Mizuki mid-air. Chains, rippling out through the falling rain, catching around Mizuki's hands and legs. Lightning flashed again, and Naruto blinked away the white brilliance. As shadows took hold once more, he saw Sasuke land into the wet grass, twin chains appearing between his gloved hands, their ends catching around Mizuki.

Ninja weapons?

"Ah, _youth_," Mizuki hissed, and made a strange movement in the darkness. Sasuke cried out, and one chain went _snap_, both ends flying up. Mizuki's knife was sharp, way too sharp. It came back, around, cut the second chain. A third swipe, this time in Naruto's direction.

"Get-" Naruto said, scrambling to his feet. He shoved Sai in the direction of the pine trees. "Get out of here."

This is bad, he thought; I could outrun Mizuki _maybe_ on a good day. Not with a slashed arm, a concussion and a couple of cracked ribs--

Mizuki swiped the air next to him, terrifyingly close. Naruto skidded back on the wet grass, trying to blink away the rain, trying to keep his eyes on this dark figure in the night who was moving way too fast for his own good, calling his name -- Naruto, Naruto, wherefore art thou my Naruto -- and Naruto falling back, wishing this goddamn psychopath would leave him _alone_--

Pain, red sharp pain. Oh god, please tell me that wasn't deep. It was in the side, and Naruto stumbled back, clutching at his side, feeling the warmth of his blood burble over his fingers. Mizuki, laughing, coming at him. And then gone, torn away by Sasuke's blurring shape, throwing the psycho into that tall grey angel statue.

"Naruto!" Sasuke hissed, looking back at him. "Run!"

"Oh, wish I could."

Mizuki got Sasuke in the gut with his elbow, throwing the boy into the rocky ground. His cell phone flipped out, bounced across the rocks, skidded towards Naruto.

Cue from God, that was what Naruto's old foster parent would say. Naruto forced himself to get to his feet, tried to make it across the grass without stumbling -- oh god, there we go, he was falling already, good job Naruto, _you really saved the day today. _All that ADD and hyperactivity and it didn't even give you enough energy to make it three feet to a phone -- and then Mizuki was coming at him, laughing under his breathe, raising the knife and--

-- and swearing, clutching at his temples, stumbling to the side.

"Yeah!" Sai shouted, throwing another rock. "You like that one? Well, how about _this_, asshole?!"

Mizuki caught the next rock, regarded it for a moment. "How about it, indeed?"

A blur of the arm, and Naruto saw Sai stagger and fall out of the corner of his eye. Oh no, oh no, oh no. But Sai bought his some time, at least -- Naruto reached forward and his fingers fell over the phone, slick with rain. Arm shaking, he tried to punch in the numbers, hoping to God he didn't miss one, his blood dripping out over his fingers onto the phone pad.

"Hello?" Iruka's voice.

"Iruka-!" Naruto shouted. "Oh god, _help!_"

Not even a pause, nor any other questions. Iruka had training, quick and to the point: "Where are you?"

"The cemetery outside of the church! I don't know what it's _called-_ it's-"

A flash of steel, and Mizuki's knife sent Sasuke's cell phone spinning into oblivion.

"Fox, fox, fox, fox, _fox_," Mizuki hissed, standing over him.

Sasuke tackled him, and the two of them tumbled into the shadows and the rain. Naruto grabbed at the wet ground, trying to get up. He wiped the rain from his forehead and left streaks of blood. He was going to pass out soon, and he couldn't, because that meant one thing.

He got to one knee when someone came out of the dark and grabbed him roughly by the shoulders.

Sasuke. Thank god.

"Come on," Sasuke said, picking him up, and putting one arm around his waist. "We have to find Sai, then hoof it."

"Mizuki--"

"Yeah, he's the reason we have to hoof it--"

Lightning flashed and Sasuke tripped. Naruto _really_ couldn't blame him -- it was wet, it was fucking _dark_, and the ground was as straight and flat as the Andes. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little angry when he fell on his wounded arm, and the side where Gaara kicked him.

"Get up, get up," Sasuke said, standing up.

Mizuki out of the dark, charging at them, knife raised, screaming like an idiot. Naruto couldn't run, not now. He was going to plunge that knife into him and raise it and do it _again _and again--

Sasuke's hand blurred, and Mizuki stopped in his tracks, a swiss army knife sticking out of his shoulder. Mizuki stared at it, as if confused as to what it was.

"Missed," Sasuke said.

"Doesn't matter," Naruto said, getting up.

"Was the rain, I'm sorry," Sasuke said. Why he was explaining himself Naruto had no idea. "It was dark."

"Doesn't _matter. _Won't hurt him. We gotta go."

Mizuki pulled out the knife, looked up at the two boys and threw it at Sasuke. Sasuke flinched, raising his hand to protect himself. The knife never landed. Mizuki's eyes widened, his face a picture of confusion.

Kakashi stood between the two boys, one hand in his tweed coat pocket, the other holding the swiss army knife. He gazed at Mizuki indifferently, one eyelid drooping. Mizuki stared, not knowing what to do, and as he did, his body turned into a study in yellow and black, as a car burst through the hedges, headlights throwing the graveyard into bright relief, heading towards them.

It parked, and Iruka got out. "Naruto!" he shouted, running to the boy's side. He kneeled down, then looked up. His mouth dropped open. "Kakashi--"

Kakashi walked past him towards Mizuki. He put the swiss army knife into his pocket.

"Just 'cuz there's more of ya," Mizuki said, "doesn't mean I can't cut you all up."

"Uh huh," Kakashi said.

Before Naruto passed out, he wasn't quite sure what happened next. Mizuki came at Kakashi knife blazing, and Kakashi sort of _shrugged_ his shoulder, pulling out a tiny pocket mirror. The mirror was black, showing no reflection, except for Mizuki, and Mizuki's eyes.

Mizuki screamed, and seemed to _fall_ into the pocket mirror, before vanishing altogether. Slowly, Kakashi turned to face the others.

He shrugged, looking amused. "Shadows," he said, shrugging, as if that explained anything.

ooo

Warmth, then. And pain, of course, the pain was there. Memories, a little bit too, although those were fuzzier. When he opened his eyes, the room was dark, and there was a figure sitting next to him. _His_ room. His attic room. He could hear the tree branches rapping against his window. In the light thrown against his dark ceiling, he could see the branches' shadows.

The figure sitting next to him shifted into the light. Sasuke.

"Hey," Naruto said, softly. He realized, do to the thickness of the voice, that he was probably drugged. Why wasn't he in a hospital? Oh _yeah_. Dark creatures and all. "We got home okay?"

"Yeah," Sasuke said. He shifted in his seat, patted Naruto on the shoulder. "Just wanted to make sure you were okay. Iruka wanted me to make sure you woke up." Silence for a minute, as Sasuke looked past Naruto, out the window. Then: "That was some good thinking, using my phone."

"You came--"

"Hm?"

"You and Sai. You came to get me."

"Oh, and I'm okay, by the way," a voice said.

Naruto realized that Sai was sitting by his door across the room. He was somewhat disappointed that he wasn't alone with Sasuke, but wasn't entirely sure why. "My tongue feels like a hairy caterpillar."

"My head feels like it's a smashed watermelon," Sai said. "God I want a cigarette."

"Iruka wants you to stay awake for a bit longer," Sasuke said to Naruto. "You cracked your head pretty badly."

"Hey," Naruto said, trying to sit up, and failing. He reached for Sasuke, caught him by the arm. "Wait."

"Yeah-?"

"You came to help me. Like. You saved my life."

"We heard you shouting. Voices tend to carry through that forest."

Sai nodded. "It's haunted."

"Well," Naruto said. "Thank you."

"You don't thank people for saving your life," Sasuke said. "It's just what people do. It's what _I_ do."

"Our hero," Sai said.

Sasuke shrugged.

"What time is it?" Naruto said.

"It's late," Sasuke said. "We have to leave soon, but -- you need to stay awake."

"Yeah."

"And I won't ask you why there was someone crawling up out of a mirror to come knife you until you're better."

Naruto tried to laugh, but couldn't. He smiled.

ooo

Iruka and Kakashi saw Sasuke and Sai off, telling them they would handle everything else. 'Handling'. Iruka still didn't know what that meant. You didn't really call the police to tell them they need to prosecute an insane shadow-creature from a spirit-world. More disturbingly was hearing that Gaara had been pulled _in._

"I should be able to get him out," Kakashi said, as he sat on the balcony of the old house. He shrugged. "I know some things. That kid -- hey, I bet he'll come out a better person."

Iruka stood by the door of the old house, aware that he had barely said three words to Kakashi the entire night. Earlier in the kitchen he had offered Kakashi a beer. That had been the extent of their conversation. "Kakashi-"

"There's not really too much else to say, is there?"

"But I just--"

"Don't worry about it."

"If I knew you were living here, I wouldn't have come."

"Well, that's why it's forgivable, right?" Kakashi stood up, set the beer bottle down, readjusted his scarf so it covered his mouth. "I think you're a good match for that kid. You were always the patient one, I think, right?"

Kakashi looked at him, but Iruka had to look away.

"I should go," Kakashi said.

"I just feel like a jerk, coming here."

"You didn't know. And anyways--" Kakashi squeezed Iruka's shoulder. "It was good to see you again."

"Yeah."

"Hey, don't worry. Everything'll be fine. You just wait."

ooo

The walk home. This was the worst part of the night, the way it cloaked around Sasuke and tried to accept him into its fold. The walk across the filthy street beneath the brick tunnels. The wall along the pointed gothic black fence around the churchyard. The way the forest rolled in the distance from the wind like a living creature. At least it'd stopped raining.

It was under the tunnel that it came. Sasuke paused and let the train roar overhead, shaking the foundations of the brick, so loud all other meaning seemed to fly away with the sound. As the final car passed, Sasuke turned and glared back into the shadows of the tunnel. "Stop following me."

"_Master_." The snake appeared, gliding along the sidewalk. "_I extend an invitation_."

"I already told you I'm not interested."

"_But young master, we offer you a feast of elegant proportions and a title of worthy majesty, especially for one so destined for greatness as yourself_."

"Maybe I should cut you in two, would that be enough of a clear message?"

"_My master Orochimaru demands-_"

"Orochimaru is dead. I'd like to leave it that way. Get out of here."

The snake paused, moving back and forth, a little dance of its own, as if considering its options. Then, it was away, slithering towards the brick wall and disappearing through a small crack.

The night has too many creatures in it, Sasuke thought. He turned and continued on his way home.

ooo

_Night creatures_.

Kabuto lay back on his couch, watching late-night television, hearing his father and mother argue about his older brother's newest magazine article. Kabuto rarely watched television, but he saw it as a form of meditation, a way to clear one's head and fade into a state of non-being. The flickering images, the music, the excellent bit-bat-bit editing, the predictable storylines, oh yes, it was all _marvelous_. It mingled with the drama in the kitchen like a fine wine with a wonderfully aged cheese.

"Can't you see it? Our boy's a fine writer. If only you could see that."

"How can I see that? He writes with such anger all the time. How can he enjoy his job if he is always writing with all this anger?"

"That's the _thing_. That's how we _know_ he enjoys it. The anger is his passion for his work. Look at his passion."

"I just figure if he liked his job, he wouldn't be so angry all the time. How can I be wrong there, uh? He should get a _new_ job, a job he likes."

Kabuto's brother liked to write. Kabuto didn't like to write. Kabuto didn't _like_ to do _anything_. This was worrisome. Soon highschool would be over, and his lack of discrimination would send him into Business, the world of unspecialized office work. He wasn't looking forward to it.

Television off. Meditation over. It was time to return to the living, and to the sharp-edges of reality. He climbed the stairs, and saw it: a small beetle, lost, probably having come in from the outside when his mother held the door open when she talked to the neighbours. He regarded the beetle, appreciated the simplicity of his life.

He was aware he was in the group the other kids referred to as the Popular ones. He wasn't sure how that happened. It was a combination, really, he thought, a mixture of ridicule and friendliness and, to no small degree, physical attraction. They were all very attractive. Suigetsu made kids feel like shit. Temari made them feel better. Other kids wanted to be like them: attractive, near someone like Temari, and so above everything that even Suigetsu didn't make fun of them. Ah, highschool.

Kabuto grabbed the beetle, marveled at the speed with which he did it. Holding the beetle in his hand, he opened the door to his room, closed it, and stuffed the beetle into his mouth.

"Why did you do that?"

The voice came from his window, which was open, and he never left his window open. The figure stood inside his room, by the window, regarding him. In the moonlight, he was beautiful.

"Something you taught me," Kabuto said, in between chewing. "The living is life. Blood is live. isn't that right, Itachi?"

Itachi gazed at Kabuto, pale in the moonlight, preternaturally beautiful, a wind drifting through his dark clothing. His voice was soft: "I want you to do something for me, Kabuto."

Kabuto swallowed the last of the beetle down and went to his bed, staring at the vampire. "Anything."

"Sasuke--"

"Yes?"

"I want him to fall in love with the girl Ino. Can you do that for me?"

"Can I _do_ that for you? Sasuke and Ino? I could match Hitler and Churchill if I wanted to. Sure I can do that for you. But-- why Sasuke and Ino?"

Hesitation. Again, the soft voice, calm and endlessly masculine, in a way that made Kabuto's hair stand on end: "Leverage."

And then Itachi was gone, out the window, and Kabuto felt the absence of him acutely. He went to the window and closed it.

Sasuke and Ino... leverage...

Ah, to be a night creature. He looked forward to the next day at school.


	5. Chapter 5

In the days that followed, Naruto became kind of a local hero around the school. The stories varied from student to student; in some Naruto flew into a rage and killed Gaara with his bare hands, in others with Gaara's own knife. Naruto sometimes fell back into feelings of guilt, even as his arm hurt, reminding him of what Gaara tried to do. Still, he hadn't like lying to the police (the official story that Kakashi had come up with was that Gaara had run off into the trees when Sasuke and Sai had arrived), and he hated seeing Temari wander around in a sort of daze. And of course, Kankuro, who had actually been the one to run off when Sasuke arrived, believed that the trio had done his brother in.

Naruto let the bandage stay on his arm longer than was necessary. He didn't know how to explain to the others why the slash in his arm had healed so quickly, nor how it had healed with the kind of thin, polite scar one only got from weeks of dressing and cleaning a wound.

He stood in the cafeteria now, sun streaming in through the windows, drenching his artwork. The canvas reached from one side of the room to the next. He reached down with the paintbrush, dabbed grey, dabbed blue, came back and began to work on the side of the dolphin that glanced the watery scene.

"_Very _nice!" the voice called.

Naruto turned on his stool and saw Sasuke, Sai and Sakura standing in the doorframe. Naruto spread his arms, grinned and said, "What do you think?"

Sakura tossed her pink hair, came forward, stared at the canvas. "I didn't know you could paint, Naruto."

Sai sat down at a table, leaned back, surveying the cafeteria. There had been a talent show there the day before and it still hadn't been cleaned up. Sasuke hadn't joined, which was odd, because he joined everything. Naruto knew it was because the talent show had no competition; it was only a show for fun, which gave nothing for Sasuke to excel at. Now Sasuke was staring at the mural Naruto was painting, reminding him of the most important part of the Beneath The Sea dance coming up: the dance contest. Naruto bet that Sasuke didn't even know what first prize was; Sasuke just wanted it.

"Evening, gents," Suigetsu said, appearing at the door of the cafeteria. At his appearance, Naruto stiffened, wishing that there were more kids who took a last period spare, so the room wouldn't be so empty. Suigetsu was not the greatest person to be-- "Hey, Narutard," Suigetsu said, coming up to the mural. "Nice painting."

"Don't you think you should be somewhere where you're wanted?" Sakura said.

"That's what I don't get about you two, Sakura. You and Sasuke. Don't get why you hang out with these two. Miss Crossdresser here and Narutard."

"What do you have against Naruto?" Sakura said. Sai glanced over and Sakura looked back at him. "_And_ Sai, of course."

"Whatever," Suigetsu said, sitting back at the table. "Sasuke, you wanna get high?"

"Right now?" Sasuke said. "In school? Last period? Is that a serious question?"

"Figured you'd turn fag if you hung out with them long enough."

"Oh go fuck yourself, Suigetsu," Sakura said.

The cafeteria doors opened again, and Karin walked in, followed by Kabuto and Haku. Haku smiled at them and waved, calling Suigetsu's name.

"_Nice_ painting," Karin said, swaying her hips.

Naruto almost wanted people to stop saying that. He glanced back at the painting, appreciated how amateur it was, the blockyness, the lack of detail. Perfect for a school dance saturated in little light, but not exactly fabulous contemporary art. He was already beginning to get jittery, his right foot tapping up and down on the stool, so he went back to painting.

"You going to the dance, Sasuke?" Kabuto said, eyes flashing.

Sasuke looked uncomfortable for a moment. "I think I am."

"Got anyone to go with?"

"Why, Kabuto, you asking me out?"

"You wish. Nah, but I can keep an eye out for any good looking available women for you."

"How thoughtful of you."

ooo

"Highschool, man, you know? Highschool. Whoever thought we'd be back in one of these places ever again?" Jugo looked up at the highschool, his mouth opening wide into a grin.

"I don't know about that," Shikamaru said, looking up back at the church across the street. "I suspect someday we'll have kids, and eventually have to enroll them _somewhere_."

"Unless we homeschool them."

"Yes, I suppose. Maybe we should stop standing around gawking and get to doing what we're supposed to be doing, hm?"

"Nice day outside, though. Windy, a little bit chilly, leaves blowing around everywhere. Nice autumn day."

"Mhm hm. Now hold on, before we go inside, I'm going to have to make sure I can trust you on this."

"Trust me?"

"Yeah."

"Moi? Why couldn't you trust me?"

"Oh good god, is that a real question? That's not an actual question is it? Knowing your violent tendencies?"

Jugo grinned. "I like to think I can keep them under control."

"Well, that's good. Please keep them under control while we're here. That would be lovely. That would be downright excellent."

"Blond kid, right?"

"What?"

"He's blond, right? The Naruto kid?"

"Very blond, I'm told. Didn't you pay attention?"

"Just doublechecking. I always get jittery right before a job."

"Well, don't. Take deep breaths."

"You always sound so calm."

"That's because I take deep breaths."

"Strangling some kid would calm me down."

"Yeah, but it'd stress _me_ out, so let's not, shall we? No strangling kids. _Please._"

"I'm told the old Akatsuki members used to strangle lots of kids."

"I highly doubt that."

They pushed the doors in and the blank, bland warmth of the school hallways and the smell of the drywall and the tile absorbed them. Thank god they arrived during classes -- there was the occasional student furtively running to his locker and back, but otherwise the place was fairly empty.

Jugo sped up to stay walking beside Shikamaru. "Did you know that Akatsuki means 'dawn'? Or 'daybreak'?"

"I did."

"Makes you wonder why the organization called themselves that."

"Why, considering how deteriorated they are?"

"Maybe they're referring to how hot the sun is, and to the amount of _pain_ the sun can bring people."

"We're not supposed to bring pain to people."

"I like bringing pain to people."

"I'm aware of that. I'm asking you not to though. Especially not in a highschool, please."

"I'm surprised you joined with Akatsuki. You were part of that military group, right? Team, what? Team-"

"Team 10."

"You lied about your age to get in, didn't you?"

"Obviously."

"So why Akatsuki?"

"Did you read the newspaper today?"

"Are you changing the subject?"

"I'm not."

"No I didn't."

"There was a civil skirmish in Lesovo today."

"That in India?"

"Maybe we shouldn't have this conversation."

"Africa, right?"

"Africa, yes. Something like three thousand children were injured or killed in the bombings."

"Sounds like a blast."

"To your twisted kind, maybe. The point is that as Team 10 I couldn't do anything about that. We were too tied up by the rules of this corrupt government."

"And as Akatsuki?"

"Well, when we control the world, we'll be able to stop things like that, won't we?"

"Hence our kidnapping some blond kid?"

"You _weren't_ paying attention, were you?"

"I was, I was, he's possessed by powerful demon-spirit, I understand. You were right though, Akatsuki has fallen from grace. What are we, like two of the _four_ members left?"

"Something like that. Quiet, isn't that him up there?"

"I don't get you having that sort of ambition."

"What?"

"I thought you just wanted to make a normal salary, some nice little job somewhere, raise some kids, et cetera."

"I do. I still do. But you can't go doing things like that knowing what bad things are happening out in the world. Now can you be quiet? You're going to attract attention to us."

"I think your hair is going to attract all the attention it likes."

"Hey, this hairstyle is very popular in many different countries. Now _quiet._"

Up ahead, Sasuke and Naruto were walking up the hall together, talking. "I could teach you," Sasuke said.

"Teach me?"

"I've been taking martial arts since I was five. I figure I could impart a little knowledge your way, help you defend yourself against those things, _which_, by the way, you'll have to explain to me."

Naruto looked away and shrugged. "Yeah, I know. It's just -- well, people tend to not believe me."

"Seeing that guy crawl out of the ice made me a little more open-minded than usual."

"Yeah, I suppose, but--"

"_Sasuke_-" a voice said.

Sasuke turned, and saw Kabuto come out of the library, with Ino in tow.

"Sasuke," Kabuto said. "You, oh hi, Naruto, you two are still coming to my party-thing after the dance, yes?"

"Oh!" Naruto said, grinning. "Yeah! Oh, yeah, for sure, definitely!"

"Oh _good_," Kabuto said, smiling. "Oh, Sasuke, you've met Ino, right? She's a friend of Sakura, I think."

"We're in a few classes together, yeah," Ino said.

"Ino and I were going to go for something to eat after school," Kabuto said. "Did you guys want to come. Naruto, I've got some music I need to show you, really vamp up your tastes."

Naruto, blinked, surprised at the attention. "Oh. Maybe. _I've_ got nothing planned. Sasuke?"

Sasuke glanced at Naruto. "You want to go?"

"Naruto," Kabuto take, putting his arm around him and walking ahead, forcing Sasuke to walk along with Ino. "Are you a fan of the Apples in Stereo?"

"The who?"

"It's a band."

Behind them, Kabuto heard Ino say, "Kabuto says that you're into martial arts. What do you study?"

Ah, the introductions have been made, he thought; and what a stroke of luck it was for Naruto to show up. Four is company. I can use him to deflect Sasuke back at Ino.

Ino halted in her tracks, staring at the young man standing near the lockers. Kabuto froze, wondering what the hell happened, and turned to look back.

Ino's mouth opened, closed, opened again. "_Shikamaru?_"

Shikamaru looked at her, did a double take, looked at Jugo, and then looked back at her. His mouth fell open. "_Ino?_"

Oh good god, Kabuto thought.

"What are you-?" Ino said. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question, couldn't I?"

"I go to _school_ here."

"Since when?"

"Since I _moved_ here?"

"Oh my god," Jugo said, an expression of absolute delight on his face. "Oh my god. Shikamaru, is this your old highschool _sweetheart_? _Oh. My. God. _That's _adorable_. And holy_ cow, _she's _beautiful_. Absolutely gorgeous. Wow, I gotta respect that, Shikamaru, buddy."

"No, hold on," Ino said. "This is absurd. _What_ are you doing here? Why are you here? I haven't seen you-- in _years_, Shikamaru. In _years_."

"I know," Shikamaru said.

"So--" Ino's mouth was gaping, her head was shaking. It was if too many questions were trying to come up out of her at once. Finally, she managed to get out: "Where did you _go?_"

"I joined the military."

"You were _sixteen_."

"I looked older."

"You joined the military -- on the night of our semi-formal?"

"Yeah."

"Since when did you want to join the military? You were always talking about wanting to get this _average_ job, get this _normal_, laid back life-"

"Yeah."

"So you _joined_ the _military?_"

"I wanted to make a difference."

"So you left me. Without saying anything. We all thought you-- _died_ or something. You _let_ me think you were dead, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru looked like he didn't know what to say. He glanced back at Jugo, who looked gleeful. "Uh."

And to Kabuto's horror, Ino advanced on Shikamaru, arguing, vanishing down into the hallway with him, with a laughing Jugo following, away from the all-important Sasuke.

ooo

Farther in the town, halfway on the way into the streets of houses, there was a large bridge that ran over the river. The current was brisk today, carrying twigs and branches over towards the falls in the distance. Trees swayed on either side and the air was so laden with tumbling leaves that it seemed to Naruto that Sasuke was framed with sparkling gold flakes.

"It's hard to explain, I think," Naruto said, looking away, looking down at the water below the railing. He sipped his coffee, smiled, looked at it. "This is good."

"I still say you don't _need_ coffee."

"But it's so delicious, you have to admit that." He leaned against the railing and sighed. "Well, to put it succinctly, there is a group of shadowy non-people, kind of like vengeful spirits, who follow me around and try and kill me."

Sasuke said nothing for a moment. Naruto looked at him, but Sasuke's eyes were too dark, pools of black ocean, and he couldn't tell if Sasuke believed him or not.

Finally, Sasuke said, "Why do they want to kill you?"

"_Well_, let me try and explain _that_. Hm." He swished the coffee around in the cup. "Hm. Right, well, to put _that_ succinctly, there's this powerful spirit of a nine-tailed fox residing in me, or so these shadows believe, and they think that if they kill me, the spirit will come out, and they'll be able to harness its, erm, awesome power."

"That's a lot of pressure."

"I don't know."

"Do you believe that?"

"I don't know if I do or not. I _do_ believe there's a whole bunch of shadow-guys crawling out of mirrors to come knife me."

"Well, that's why I want to teach you how to defend yourself."

Naruto smiled. "Well, that _would_ be nice of you. When'd you want to schedule the first lesson."

Sasuke shrugged. "When are we free..?"

"You're going to the dance, right?"

"I think."

"You _think?_ But there's a competition for the Mighty Sasuke to bitch!"

Sasuke looked uncomfortable. He turned, leaned even farther upon the rail, watched a branch flow along the water and vanish when the rapids claimed it. "I don't know how to dance."

Naruto almost dropped his coffee. "You don't know how to dance?"

"No."

"I don't believe you."

"Why?"

"Because you know _everything_."

"I don't know that."

"Huh."

Silence. The wind howled around them and a car drove past along the bridge, throwing up leaves into the air. Golden light speckled and flickered.

"I could teach you."

Sasuke glanced at him. "You could what?"

"I could teach you how to dance."

"You know how to dance?"

"Do _I_ know how to dance? Sure. Hip-hop, tango, salsa, ballroom--"

"Where'd you learn how to dance?"

"One of my foster parents a while back. I mean I don't know _everything_. Just a smattering here, a smattering there--"

"You'd teach me how to dance."

"Why not? You're teaching me how to fight. When do you want to learn?"

"Can't tomorrow. Karate lesson."

"After your lesson?"

"Kung fu lesson."

"You have two martial art lessons after one another?"

"Yeah."

"Well, how about during last period tomorrow?"

Sasuke paused, quiet. "All right."

His cell phone rang, and he started with surprise. He pulled it out, looked at it. "... Kabuto?" He answered it: "Hello?... uh... okay... huh." He looked at Naruto and said, "Kabuto wants us to go hang out with him and Ino."

"Oh! Okay!"

Sasuke blinked. "You wanted to go?"

"Sure! Why not?"

Sasuke seemed to weigh the answers to the question, but then said on the phone, "All right, we'll be there in a bit." He hung up, threw the phone back into his pocket. "Since when does Kabuto talk to Ino so much?"

"Maybe he's attracted to her?"

"She's not really his type."

"Ah well, hanging out with them would be fun, wouldn't it?"

"Mhm."

"Oh look at you, brooding about. Come on."


	6. Chapter 6

There was something incongruous to Zeppelin pounding down through the speakers in the diner. The waiters didn't seem entirely to know how to act, trying to walk calmly even as badass harmonica and odd time signatures threatened to trip them up. The waiter by Kabuto's table, was shifting back and forth to the beat, his head shakily swaying to Page's twisting guitar. "Your coffee."

Ino didn't seem to even notice it as the guy set it down. She stared straight at the mosaics on the table. "I still can't believe it. I can't believe he's in town."

Kabuto wanted to strangle her. It'd been half an hour now, with Naruto sitting opposite him and Sasuke firmly planted opposite Ino.

"He gave me a promise ring, you know," Ino said. "I mean, I know they're stupid and sentimental but I kind of -- I kind of liked it. I'd take it off and look at it every now and then and I-- goddamn _him_."

"Well," Kabuto said, pushing his glasses up until his nose. "The best part of having an old flame in the territory is the ability to show him what he lost by parading a new guy around."

"How immature would that be?" Ino said. "Actually I like it. That's sort of a good idea, isn't it?"

"I've heard it works sometimes," Naruto said. "I knew this guy once who used to have these women on hand, like they were his friends and stuff, but whenever he wanted to make someone jealous, he'd get them to dress up and he'd go walk around with them on his arm. They liked it I think. The attention, I mean."

"I like the cut of your jib," Kabuto said. "Yes, Ino, it's time to pick up the pieces. You'll need to find someone serious, handsome, someone with similar interests."

"Yeah I bet." She leaned forward, wrapping her fingers around her cup. "Maybe I should just get pregnant or something. There's something to fill the void in my life with -- motherhood."

"You're not talking seriously, I hope," Naruto said.

Ino stared at him. "Are you suggesting I wouldn't be a good mother?"

"Well, I just think you might be a little young-"

"I'd be a _great_ mother."

"Well, yeah, a teenaged mother."

"Well, I didn't mean _now._"

"Sasuke," Kabuto said. "What kind of karate did you say you studied?"

Sasuke glanced up, surprised at the question. "Uh. No particular school. Hard to find a particular school in North America."

"I _know_," Ino said. "Isn't it awful?"

"Well, considering what the form's become, I don't think it's too much of a disadvantage."

"Really? I think it's awful. I think we should all be specializing in one particular thing -- keeps everyone distinct. It'd make competitions more fun, that's for sure. You ever watch old kung fu movies, where everyone in the tournaments have different powers?"

"No."

"You don't watch old chop-sockey flicks?"

Sasuke shook his head. "No, not a fan."

"_Really_?"

"I'm shocked, too," Naruto said. "When someone's not a fan of the _Flying Guillotine_, I have to question their sanity."

"Oh I don't know about that one," Ino said, looking delighted. "I'm a _Deadly Venoms_ fan. I mean, god some of the slow-motion in those movies--"

"I just like how cheesy it is."

"Sure, but you have to appreciate some of the low-budget artistry going into something like that."

"Oh, yeah, sure, _artistry. _Nothing says artistry like buckets of red paint exploding out of your actor's mouth. Backflipping over a camera; that's Oscar-material right there. Samurai films, now _there's_ a genre."

"Oh, I don't like those samurai films."

"_What?_"

"They're so _solemn_. They're, uh, shit, what's the word? _Pretentious_. I think they're very pretentious."

"That adds to the charm!"

"Well, maybe I'll have to give them another try sometime." And the way Ino smiled at Naruto then set Kabuto's teeth on edge.

"Naruto," Kabuto said.

"Yeah?"

"Come out to my car, I need to show you some CDs. Loan them to you, rather."

"Oh! Wow, okay."

Outside the restaurant, it was getting darker, and Naruto felt the wind get colder even as he walked towards Kabuto's car.

"So I think they're really hitting it off," Kabuto said, opening the car trunk.

"Who?" Naruto said.

"Ah, here we go. You like REM?"

"Never listened to them much."

"Where the hell _were_ you during the 90s?"

"Uh. Really young? Where were you?"

"Okay, same thing. What about Ani DiFranco? You a fan?"

"I don't know."

"What music _do_ you listen to?"

"I don't know. You like Thelonious Monk?"

"Never heard of them."

"It's, er, _him_, actually. He's a musician."

Kabuto glanced back towards the restaurant, looked through the window. Ino seemed to have struck up a conversation with Sasuke, and Sasuke was smiling. Good stuff. "Yeah," he said. "REM. You want to talk about artistry, you should watch the video for Losing My Religion."

"Oh. Okay! Thanks."

"Thelonious Monk. Who else do you like? Let me look at you. Okay, I guessing... you're into that screamo crap, right? Lost The Hero, or whatever that band's called... Plenty The Hero... Protest the Hero, that's it. You into them, I guess?"

"Never heard of them."

"Well, that's good."

"Miles Davis is good."

"Who?"

"You're not into jazz?"

"Oh. _Jazz_." Kabuto looked back at the restaurant. Excellent stuff: Sasuke was leaning forward. He laughed at something Ino said. Served to prove Kabuto right: put two attractive people with similar interests together, and it greased the wheels of matchmaking immensely. "Yeah, well, I'll loan you Automatic For the People. It's an album everyone should hear."

"Oh. Okay. Thanks!"

ooo

Naruto waved to Ino and Kabuto, and felt the glow of her smile fall onto him and then vanish as the two of them turned and walked away into the night. "Well," he said. "That was fun, wasn't it?"

"I'm never really one for hanging out at diners," Sasuke said. "But yeah, that was fun."

They set off into a dark autumnscape, the last little bits of the sunset setting fire to the swarming clouds that the wind sent tumbling over the treetops, leaves still cascading down to the street and along the sidewalk. Walking home was usually no problem for them -- Sasuke lived five minutes from Naruto, and they could usually walk to the bridge together and split up there. Sasuke's house was the closer one; Naruto could see it from the bridge.

"I'm a little concerned for Ino," Sasuke said.

"Ino? Why?"

"Just all the attention Kabuto's putting into her. That guy just doesn't do things unless he has some ulterior motive."

"Aren't we paranoid."

"I'm speaking from past experience."

"So what was his ulterior motive in lending me his CDs?"

"I don't know. All I'm saying is that he has one."

"So-"

"_Quiet!_"

Sasuke was aware the last bits of the sunset had dropped down beneath the horizon. Now he walked to the edge of the bridge, gazed at the treetops that grew over the side of the rocks, suspended over the river. Movement? He reached into his coat pocket and drew out the crucifix he kept there. His heart stopped beating for a moment, and the hairs on the back of his neck raised. He hated to see this. he wished he wasn't seeing it.

The crucifix was burnt, the edges curling up, the wood peeling and blackening.

"We have to go," he said. "We have to go _now_."

"What?"

"_Run!_"

Naruto didn't wait to ask more questions; when Sasuke took off he took off behind him. He was aware that Sasuke was frightened, _seriously_ frightened, and he got the sense that there was something chasing them, something he didn't want to look back at. Their shoes clattered across the metal grate of the bridge, and then they were on the sidewalks, running for Sasuke's house.

Naruto sensed something reach out for him, something cold, but something balked when they reached Sasuke's lawn. The unmistakable smell of garlic hung over the narrow house, and sure enough, as Sasuke fished his keys out of his coat for the door, Naruto saw garlic cloves hanging over the porch.

"Inside," Sasuke said, pulling open the door. "Quickly."

Stumbling in, pausing for breath, noticing the cloves of garlic hanging over the stairs, on the walls, noticing the horseshoe nailed into the drywall. "What-- what the hell was _that?_"

"What?"

"I felt something. What _was_ that?"

Sasuke shut the door, locked it. "Don't worry about it." He went to the windows and shut the drapes, went to an old-fashioned lamp on the table, turned it on, revealing an old-looking room, done in dark colours. "You better call Iruka. You shouldn't head back out tonight."

"You mean stay here?"

Sasuke lifted one edge of the drape, and looked out. "Yeah."

"Would your parents mind?"

"I doubt that. They're dead."

Which shut Naruto up. "Oh," he said.

"Yeah, call Iruka," Sasuke said, turning around. "We could do dancing lessons tonight, I guess." He seemed to attempt to try for some cheer; he forced a small smile on his face. "It'll be fun."

ooo

Houses this big required people, Naruto thought, as he walked into Sasuke's room. The place reeked of loneliness. He couldn't believe Sasuke lived in this dark house all alone, with only garlic cloves keeping him company.

"Your music?" he asked, when he saw Sasuke kneeling by his shelf of cds.

"Yeah."

"What do you listen to?"

"Well, this section is my older stuff. Classical, romantic, that sort of thing."

"Yeah."

"Down here is... well. I listen to ska."

"Ska?"

"I have some Reel Big Fish here, some Five Iron Frenzy-"

"You listen to ska?"

"Yeah."

"I wouldn't have pegged you for a ska-listener."

He shrugged. "What shall we dance to?"

"Got any Jackson-5s?"

"Who?"

"Never mind." He leaned over, looking at the cds. "You've got Duke Ellington?"

"It was my father's."

"Oh, we're dancing to that then."

ooo

Sophisticated Lady. The treacly piano came out the speakers. Now the slow songs, Naruto said.

Sasuke had been a fast learner when Naruto showed him the fast-dancing. Scratch that: Sasuke had been an _impossibly _fast learner. He watched Naruto's every movement with intense, learning eyes, then got up and did almost precisely what Naruto had done. Sasuke's problem, of course, was the improvisation, rather than expertly memorizing the dance moves. You have to try and blend them together, Naruto tried to say, start out doing one thing and then switching to another. Think of it from a musician's point of view -- you have all these chords at your disposal, and it's the way that you put them together that makes a good song. Same with dance. Still, Sasuke had a hard time of it.

Slow-dancing, then, Naruto said, where Sasuke's incredible memorization of the intricate structure of the moves wouldn't be a hindrance.

"Come on," Naruto said, taking Sasuke's hand in his. "Slow-dancing is the easiest dance in the world, _unless_ you wanna be good at it, which you do -- put your hand on my waist."

Sasuke pressed his hand against Naruto's waist, and Naruto leaned in, drawing Sasuke around the room. "Keep your feet moving -- you want it all to be smooth, and all to the time signature, hear it, bip, bip bip--"

"I never liked this song before," Sasuke said.

"Stay focused, man," Naruto said. "Sway to the side now. How _old_ is this house, anyways? No, no, _you_ lead, you lead, keep me moving."

"It's old," Sasuke said. "Hundred years old maybe. It was my grandfather's."

"How do you live here all alone?"

"I don't mind being alone."

"Still, being _not_ alone is better than being alone."

"Sometimes."

"What caused you to stop hanging out with the Popular Kids?"

"I don't know. It just seemed to stop being so important."

The piano seemed to fill the room like bubbles, dancing around their skin. "Three steps here," Naruto said. "See, that's jazz. You heard the change in the time there? Have to do more steps then, to keep up with the song--"

"I can do that."

"You'll win the competition yet."

"Yes, so I like ska. What music do you like?"

"What?"

"This evening's been all around music, right? Here--I'm supposed to spin you here -- ah, very nice spin there, Naruto--"

"I'm good at spinning."

"Apparently. But yes, this music's been about music. What music do you like?"

"Everyone likes that question."

"Inquiring minds--"

"I like--" Tell him the truth, Naruto, he thought; you like the same music Iruka does. "Jazz. That's what I like. That's what I listen to. I don't think I've listened to a pop song in three years. Intentionally, I mean, of course."

"I haven't listened to much Jazz."

"God, it's like the _music_ is dancing. That's jazz. It's like the music's-- shit, I don't know-- alive or something."

The song stopped and Sasuke drew Naruto around to a halt. "You're a good dancer," he said.

Naruto laughed. "No I'm not."

They looked at each other. Naruto realized just how dark Sasuke's eyes were. And his lips were-

Something rattled against the window. Sasuke turned sharply towards it, eyes wide. But it was just the tree branches rapping against the glass. "All right," he said. "We should get ready for bed."

ooo

Sasuke opened the balcony doors, and looked out onto the night. He walked out, toothbrush stuck in his mouth. There was garlic strung along the railing of the balcony. He'd had to replace some of them soon. The wind swept down and ruffled his hair.

He stared out into the night and said, quietly, "Why can't you leave me alone?"

He stepped inside, closing the doors behind him. In his bed was Naruto, already moving towards sleep. Sasuke insisted Naruto took his bed, and Naruto knew enough to only protest once. Sasuke settled down in the small guest mattress he set up next to the bed and pulled off his shirt.

Naruto turned around, opened his eyes. "You've a nice body," he said, half asleep.

"Sorry?" Sasuke said, but Naruto had already turned about under the covers and had drifted off.

Oh, Sasuke thought. He lay back in the bed and said, "Thanks, Naruto."

And then there was sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Wal-Mart.

"Why do we come here?" Sakura said, aiming another dart under the florescent lights. There was a dartboard set up farther down the toy aisle. Behind them stood the monstrous electronics section, its cardboard displays and dvd racks threatening to spill out into the rest of the store.

Sai, resplendent in his Wal-Mart uniform, leaned forward, looking unhappy. "What do you mean?"

Sakura let the dart fly. It missed, bounced off one of the gardening tools in the next aisle. Sai winced. Sakura turned around and looked at Sasuke and Naruto, browsing through the cd section. "Wal-Mart should _not_ be a hang-out place."

"Cheap cds," Sasuke muttered.

"Cheap?" Sai said. "Maybe if you're rocking the r&b section. Wal-Mart takes a look at anything critically acclaimed and slaps a big fat price tag on it."

"Goddamn," Naruto said. "He's right. Hey, Sakura, let me try a hand at the dartboard."

Sai ducked as Naruto leapt over his counter. "Hey!" he said. "If the supervisor comes by-"

"Calm down, Sai-boy," Sakura said, handing Naruto a dart. "I'll run interference if that happens. He won't be able to get by my blinding good looks."

"Your blinding pink hair maybe," Sasuke muttered.

"I didn't even think you listened to music."

"Mhm."

Naruto picked up the dart, held it steady, looked at the board. Focus, time to focus, time to _really_ focus. He let fly. The dart ricocheted off a Barbie playset and embedded itself into the side of a Magnatron warrior.

"You, sir," Sai said, "are truly the dart-throwing champion of the world."

"Never said I had good aim."

Sakura reached into her pocket and pulled out a massive brass pocketwatch, flipped it open. "I wanna go get something to eat but I'd hate to abandon Sai to his torment."

"My shift only has three hours left." he said.

"Three _hours_," Naruto said, picking up another dart. "But I'm hungry _now_."

"If you suggest eating at McDonalds," Sakura said, putting the pocketwatch back into her pocket, "I'm going to shoot you."

"Why do you have that?" Sai said.

"Have what?"

"That pocketwatch."

"So I don't lose it."

"What?"

"It's chained to my pocket, see? If I drop it, it'll just hang there."

"Why don't you get, I don't know, a _watch?_ The kind with straps?"

"You're so pedestrian."

"Where'd you get it, anyways?"

"From an uncle, I think. One of them."

"So, like, not your grandfather's, or a family heirloom or anything like that?"

"I doubt it. There's a picture of a naked woman painted on the interior."

"Wow. That's quite the uncle."

"Wish I could remember which one."

Naruto's dart missed, flying somewhere farther into the shelves, crashing among the gardening implements. Naruto turned around and said, "Guys. What about food?"

Sakura looked back at him. "Starving, are we? What about you, Sasuke? Hungry?"

"Mhm."

"You're so eloquent, Sasuke. Where do we want to eat?"

Sai looked up. "You guys'll bring me back something, right?"

ooo

When they sidled into the booth at the chinese restaurant, Sasuke slid the bag across it to the Naruto. The light coming in through the blinds of the window next to them rippled over the contours of the plastic. Naruto picked it up, looked inside.

"Dance music," Sasuke said.

"Oh, _sweet_."

"_Dance_ music?" Sakura said. "What's all this about? _Oh oh oh oh oh fuck_ shut up! Shut up! _Quiet!_"

Sakura had been hitting them. They stared back at her. She was looking away, outwards into the rest of the restaurant. "Oh my god," she said. "Oh my god, it's him."

"Who?" Naruto asked.

"This _boy_. This boy. Shut _up. _He can't see me here. Uh, what do we do?"

"Why can't he see us here?" Sasuke asked.

"Shut _up!_ Heads down! Now!"

She ducked down and Naruto and Sasuke stared at her. As she did, a boy wanted by, _stopped_, and turned towards them. He stared at them and said, "Naruto?"

Naruto looked up at him, eyes widening. "Sasori?"

"Wow," Sasori said, expressionless. "What are the odds."

Standing there, the light pouring down on him, his shoulders and tips of his hair alight as if they were fire, Sakura thought he was beautiful, in his black jeans and dark Radiohead t-shirt. He looked back at her. "Nice hair."

And then he was gone.

"Jesus," Naruto said. "Awkward."

"That was _him!_" Sakura hissed. "That was him! Did you see him? That was him."

"Yeah I know him," Naruto said, leaning back. "He used to be in one of my foster homes."

"Really? What's he _like_?"

"I don't know. A little weird. Can't blame him really." He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "His grandmother tried to kill him."

"Bummer."

"Yeah," Sasuke said, tapping the table with the chopsticks. "Murderous family members are the worst."

ooo

Sasori walked up the stairs of the restaurant to the second floor, and across the empty room, passing the empty tables and the empty chairs. The restaurant didn't open its second floor until dinner time when there would be the rush, so every step of him creaked in the silence. At the other end of the room Shikamaru and Jugo sat at one of the tables.

"He's downstairs," Sasori said. "Where's Deidara?"

"Throwing up in the bathroom," Shikamaru said. "How drunk _were_ you guys?"

Sasori shrugged. "Pretty drunk, I don't know."

"He's still drunk."

"He drank a _lot_."

"I can't believe I'm paired with all you idiots."

"Hey, you want to fight about this?"

"Honestly? Is that a serious question?"

"No, I guess not. But I don't like your attitude."

Jugo looked up. "_I'd_ like to fight you. Can I, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru stood up. "Be my guest. _I'm_ going downstairs to try and complete our mission."

He went to the stairs and started down them, the warm gloom of the restaurant below swallowing him up. He walked along the booths, looking at each one. He spotted the one with Naruto, began to head towards them, and froze.

Kabuto, Karin and Suigetsu walked through the door. With Ino.

Ino, of all people! How the heck did she end up in the same town Shikamaru was assigned to? Didn't make sense, did it? Goddamn it.

She looked in his direction and he ducked back, staring ahead down the hallway that lead to the restaurant kitchen. Sliding slowly, he fell down and sat on the floor. Ino had been sweet memories, tinged, of course, with the desire to go back to her. It had always been this tightening on his heart: had he done the right thing? Every day Akatsuki deteriorated a little more, every time they hired people like the people upstairs, he started to lose a little more faith.

And then Jugo was standing beside him, looking down at him. "Is this was we call completing our mission?"

"Ino's out there."

"Ah. Well, I can go strangle her to death, if you like."

"Please don't."

"Well, I'll get us some beers instead."

ooo

"So," Sakura said, leaning forwards in the table. "Are we looking forwards to the dancing tonight?"

"Hells _yes_," Naruto said, digging into his fried rice.

"Yeah," Sasuke said. "I think I'll do fairly well."

"Hells _yes_ you will."

"Mhm."

Sasuke looked over across the restaurant, saw Kabuto sitting down next to Ino. What was happening there? He couldn't imagine Kabuto taking Ino under his wing without something sinister going on. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I'm looking forward to it."

ooo

Naruto came out of his room in the dinner jacket, smoothing it out, smoothing down the pants. "How do I look?"

Iruka stood at the bottom of the stairs. He gave a thumbs-up. "Looking sharp!"

Sakura was driving Sasuke and Naruto to the dance, and Iruka watched him run out to her car. It was exorbitantly, excellently wonderful to see a smile on that kid's face. As he closed the door, he thought about Gaara, the kid pulled into the spirit-world. Kakashi had performed a dozen rituals designed to find him and pull him out. It's no use, Kakashi said. Any mortal trapped in the spirit-world with at least half a strong will should've been able to pull himself out of any reflective surface a long time ago. If Gaara was still stuck there, it was because he wanted to be.

Iruka couldn't imagine. He went into the bathroom, peeled off the cover on the bathroom mirror, gazed at his reflection. What to do tonight, then? He had some work to do but that'd only take him maybe twenty minutes, half an hour. Read a book? Go out? Not many places to go in a town like this?

Call Kakashi, a voice in his head told him. Nooo, he thought, let's not and say we did. Let's not go overstepping any boundaries here.

"Let him go, did we?"

Iruka turned around and looked at the mirror. Oh no.

A thin hardened Japanese face stared back at him, the mouth bandaged, a headband tying up the starchy black hair.

"Zabuza Momochi," Iruka breathed. "You're dead. Kakashi killed-"

"Just like I'm going to kill your little Naruto tonight?" Zabuza said. "Oh, wait, no, big difference this time: _I'm actually going to succeed_."

"No-"

"Oh, and just so _you_ don't interfere like you did with Mizuki--"

The sink exploded and the tap on the bathtub burst, and water crashed outwards. Seawater burst through the mirror, getting Iruka in the face and knocking him back. The door swung closed and locked. The room sealed somehow, the pressure making Iruka's ears pop. And the water began to fill up.


	8. Chapter 8

Oh my, Iruka thought. This is bad.

The water knocked him off is feet and as he crashed back into the cold, it poured over his head, into his mouth, up his nose. He kicked out, swimming to the top. Not much air left. He took a deep breath, even as the water flew to the ceiling. He stayed at the top, pressing his face against the ceiling, breathing what little air was trapped by the water against it.

Right, door first. He swam out towards it, and as he did, shadow-things came out of the mirror at him. They were cold to the touch, and shot through the water around his wrists and legs, dragging him to the bottom. Now this was just _unfair_.

They were strong too, nearly crashing him down against the linoleum and pinning him there. The bathroom was distorted by the water, turned into a dark nightmare version of itself. There were scissors in the cupboard beneath the sink. He reached for it -- grabbed hold of the cupboard handle, pulled it open. Some objects were floating, some weren't. He pushed with all his might, trying to wrench his arm far enough against the shadow's pull to get those scissors. They tore back at him, but he managed to get a hold of them.

He stabbed the scissors into the shadow holding his arm. It reacted, twisting in pain, releasing him. He stabbed at the others, and they coiled away from him, screeching. Up -- push with your legs, Iruka, come on!

He nearly rammed into the ceiling, gulping what was left of the air there. He guessed the door was no good. Magically sealed, most likely, since it wasn't buckling from the water pressure. But the mirror wasn't sealed -- those shadow things came at him from it--

He dove down, and the shadow things came at him. The bathroom was small -- he reached the mirror as they grabbed hold of his legs. He pressed against its surface, and felt his fingers press through into icy cold. He forced the rest of him through--

-- and dropped, soaking, onto the foggy cliffs of the spirit-world, gasping for air.

"Impolite, isn't he?" a voice said. "Zabuza, I mean."

Iruka looked up and his heart chilled. He recognized the lanky silhouette seated some feet away from him. "No," he said, clambering to his feet. "No, you're dead."

The silhouette shrugged, looked away. "What an awful place this is, isn't it? I almost pity them -- the monsters banished here, I mean. It's no wonder they want to tear your little charge open. And such power inside him, I hear."

This was the worst conversation Iruka had ever had in his life. He wanted to reverse time, take it back. "No," he said, voice strangled. "You _stay_ away from him."

"Naruto," the figure said, regarding his nails. "Interesting name, isn't it? _Naaaar -- ooo- tow_. _Oooo-zooo-maaawk_-"

"Stay away from him."

The figure regarded him for a moment. "Zabuza's gone to go kill him, by the way."

"I'm going to stop him."

A chuckle. "I'm sure you will."

And then the figure was gone, and in the distance Iruka could see someone coming towards him out of the fog. The light in the spirit-world was never consistent, and it wasn't until the person got within ten feet that he congealed out of the fog into some coherent detail and shape.

Spiky red hair, wild eyes, a billowing scarf. Gaara.

"It's you," Iruka said. "We've been looking all over for you."

"Yeah?" Gaara said. "Hey, look what I can do."

And sand tore up from beneath the kid's feet and slammed into Iruka hard enough to tear his skin apart and throw him from the cliff into the foggy nothingness.

ooo

"Well, well," Sai said, seated on the school steps next to Sasuke. "Look at _you_."

"Heh," Naruto said, standing under the glare of the street lamps. "You like the jacket? I usually hate wearing stuff like this, but--"

Sasuke smiled. "It's a special occasion."

"Yeah." Naruto looked at Sasuke, who looked impeccable in his suit jacket, and looked down at his own ruffled, unbuttoned jacket. Oh well, Sasuke always _was_ more fashionable.

"Sai," Sakura said, coming over in a glittery blue dress. "I told you to get the green one."

Sai crossed his legs, shifting in his black dress. "But this one is _just_ like the one Audrey wears in _Breakfast_."

"Right, well," Naruto said, turning in the night air, spinning around. "We ready to go in?"

"Ready as anything," Sasuke said, standing up. "Competition starts in ten minutes, and I'm ready for anything."

Inside the school, music pounded from the gym doors and several students were sitting on benches, drinking punch. Some of them were obviously drunk, most notably, Suigetsu, who was leaning over the bench, Karin rubbing his back and telling him not to throw up, please, not here, not now. Haku smiled blankly at the two of them, waved to Temari, who walked by, got up and went to talk to some other students walking around.

"Do I know you?" Haku said.

"Doubt it," Jugo said, standing beside a locker. "But I sure _look_ like a student, don't I?"

Haku smiled at him, blinking. "You _are_ a student, right?"

_Slam_. The locker next to Jugo shut and Shikamaru turned around, glaring at Jugo. "_Yes_," he said. "We're definitely students here."

"I'm one of the Popular Kids," Haku said, his face radiantly friendly. "I know almost everyone in the school."

Jugo and Shikamaru exchanged glances.

"So I should know you too!" Haku said, extending his hand. "I'm Haku. You are?"

Shikamaru looked past Haku and saw Naruto and friends heading towards the gym door. "I'm pleased and a little exasperated. Excuse me. C'mon, _Jugo_."

"Enjoy the dance, 'k?" Jugo said, patting Haku on the shoulder and following Shikamaru past him.

ooo

_Whump_ -- the music stopped and the lights came up on the gym stage, up onto Kabuto who, as always, relished the attention everyone on the dance floor came him. "_How are you doing, guys?!_"

They screamed back at him, and the sheer volume of everyone lifted him, making him, for a moment, mighty. He spoke into the mic, "Are we ready to start the competition?"

_YEAH!_ Oh god, it was like crack.

"Here's how it's gonna work, guys," he said, glancing at the sheet of paper in front of him. "Our panel of lovely judges will be here on stage, led by the notable Mr. Kakashi -- look at him wave! What a card! Students will be judged on form and technique and will be paired _randomly_, boy-girl, boy-girl. Our first team is: Sasuke Uchiha and Ino Yamanaka!"

Music came through the speakers, and Sasuke entered the circle made by the spectators, looking a little pissed off. Naruto, standing at the sidelines, knew he was: he didn't want to go first, when the judges had nothing to compare him to and would therefore be more critical, more fresh. Still, Ino appeared, looking a little flustered; they touched hands and began to weave kinetic poetry around the gym.

"Wow, they're great, aren't they?" Sai said.

"Yeah," Naruto said. "That Sasuke sure learns fast."

"Do you see him?" Sakura said, looking around. "Do you see him?"

"See who?"

"The boy I like -- Sasori--"

"No. Since when does he _go_ to this school?"

"He's new, I think."

"What are the odds?"

"How should I know? Where the hell is he?"

Someone touched Naruto on the shoulder. In the dark of the gym it was hard to see but he recognized the silhouette of Temari. "Naruto, can I talk to you please?"

"Uh, sure, Temari."

She led him out of the gym, away from the dancing, out into the brightly lit halls of the school. Temari walked a little ahead of him, her red dress swishing with her movement. She looked distracted, she looked a little distraught.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Hold on. I want to go somewhere where we're alone."

Uh, Naruto thought. Okay.

They passed Hinata, who squeaked at them in surprise and scuttled away. Temari paused in the far hallways. There was no one around the length of the hallway. It was darker here, too, the fluorescent ceiling lights off, and only the orange glow from outside coming through the doors at the far end.

Temari looked uncomfortable. She leaned against a locker, rubbed her arm. "I just -- I just have a question for you and it might sound a little weird but I need to know. You look good, by the way."

Naruto looked down at his ruffled, unkempt suit. "Oh. Thanks. You too, I guess."

"I just have a question." She paused, looked away. She seemed to be contemplating the lock on the locker, as if trying to discern the numbers to open it. "Did you -- did you kill my brother?"

"What?"

"He attacked you -- god, that idiot -- he attacked you right? Slashed your arm, shit, this is so weird. My parents have been -- I didn't know it was possible for people to be in shock for so long-- I just... Kankuro thinks you killed him. You or Sasuke."

"I didn't kill him, Temari."

She looked up at him, eyes shimmering in the low light. "Oh," she said. "Oh good. That's good then. I just wanted to know." A pause. "Just wanted to... _clarify_ that, if you know what I mean."

"I'm sorry."

"What, why?"

"Just-" He shifted uncomfortably, trying to think of the right words. Why did the language portion of his brain never want to work properly. "I don't know. I just hate how it... hurt everyone. Hurt you."

"Kankuro held you down, I heard."

"Yeah."

"God. God god." She ran a hand through her hair. "I don't know. I'm sorry to bring you out here, Naruto, it's just--"

Her fingers find the collar of his suit; they tightened, and then she was kissing him.

He pushed her away, and immediately regretted it, he didn't mean to _push_ her away, didn't mean to full-out reject her like this. Just-

"God, I'm sorry," she said, turning away so he couldn't see the hurt in her eyes. "God, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, it just sort of--" She leaned against the locker. "Jesus Christ." She looked up at him, held his gaze. "Naruto, I think I'm in love with you."

His mouth was open. His body felt like dead weight. "Oh," he said.

"Which-- I guess this makes this a little awkward. _God_, I'm so stupid."

"No, no, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-- I didn't mean to push you away like that. It was--" Another pause. What could he say? "I'm sorry."

"You didn't kill him though."

"Gaara? No, I didn't."

"All I do is pay for his stupid crimes."

"Temari?"

"I'm sorry. I'll go."

And then she was gone, walking shakily off into the shadows of the hall, leaving him a little stunned.

"Hey!" a voice said. "You're Naruto, right?"

Naruto turned around as the fist struck him straight in the face -- down he went, hitting the tiled floor, sliding a bit.

"Aren't you subtle," Shikamaru said, coming up behind him. "Kill him, why don't you, Jugo?"

"I'd love to," Jugo said. "Can I? Can I _please?_"

"Sometimes I really hate you."

I don't know what this is about, Naruto thought as he tried to get up; but I don't like it. I've been assaulted way too often these past few days.

"No, no," Jugo said, kicking him in the side and knocking him over. "Stay down, little fox."

"Will you _quit _beating on him?" Shikamaru asked. "I _swear_ to god, these could go so much better if you get your little need-for-pain down at a controllable level."

"He's so soft, though," Jugo said, looking down at Naruto. "So easy to knock over."

"You're looking for a fight?" Naruto said, getting to one knee and wiping his bleeding lip. "I can fight."

"Yeah, but don't bother, kid," Shikamaru said. "We're professionals here. Try and keep a low profile when talking to us, we don't want to-"

Naruto was already swinging at him. Shikamaru darted to the side, ducked one swing, ducked another.

"He's a fast bugger, ain't he?" Jugo asked, grinning.

"Kid, seriously-" Shikamaru said, weaving from side to side as Naruto snapped punches at him. "I don't want to hurt you."

Naruto kicked off a locker, went into the air, his foot aimed for Shikamaru's head. Shikamaru grabbed his ankle and hurled him away, where he hit the floor and slid along.

"_Urg_," Naruto said, when he came to a stop. "What do you guys want?"

"We have a _very_ simple ultimatum for you," Shikamaru said. "Come with us, or we'll kill you."

"Easy choice to make, I think," Jugo said. "And either way I'll be happy."

"I can fight two of you," Naruto snapped.

"Wow, are _we_ overconfident," Jugo said.

"Kid, you _can't_ fight the two of us," Shikamaru added. "Give up, will you?"

_Can't_ lose, Naruto thought. He balled his fists. Could run. Could get to a brighter area, where there're friends, people to help.

"_Naruto_," a voice behind him said.

Naruto turned around and saw his reflection in the sheer locker surface ripple and warped. No, he thought, not _now_. Anytime but _now_.

The locker opened and water exploded outwards, throwing him down the hall. As he flew, the other lockers burst open, and an ocean crashed outwards, taking Shikamaru and Jugo down with it.


	9. Chapter 9

Naruto could only see the battle in glimpses through his tumbling through the school halls. The black water carried them into the library, crashing against the bookshelves. He saw Shikamaru grab hold of a ceiling fan, pull himself from the water, and go airborne, a crackling of red energy sparking around him. Then the water took Naruto down in a horrible undertow, throwing him under one table, against a chair and up against a bookshelf. The force threw him up again, where he gasped for air. He saw Zabuza standing _on_ the water, as confidently and as solidly as if he was standing on a marble floor. A wave crashed against Naruto and he choked on seawater, blinded for a moment.

The brine falling away he saw Shikamaru flying at Zabuka, a thin short sword having appeared in the younger man's hand. Zabuza, of course, held his gigantic zweihander. Shikamaru cannoned at the mist-ninja, and then the waters tore Naruto down again. This time he grabbed hold of the bookshelf and pulled himself along its edges, yanking himself out of the water and scuttling up onto the top of the shelf. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the flashing of blades and he heard the two weapons connect. Oh, and on the night of his first school dance in this place too.

"Where do you think you're going, guy?" Jugo said, swimming along the bookshelf, looking up at him. "Crazy water shit or not, we haven't forgotten about _you_."

"Priorities, Jugo," Shikamaru said, landing on the bookshelf next to Naruto, sword up, his shoulder and lower arm bleeding from two gashes. "I'd like to run and fight another day, if that's what it takes."

"What happened to all that ambition of yours?" Jugo snapped back.

Zabuza's rocketing form blocked out the library lights for a moment, and then his massive sword cut the bookshelf in two. Waves roared up, throwing Naruto up against the ceiling and then back down.

"Library's gotta have a back door, right?" Shikamaru said, soaked, clambering up what was left of the shelving unit. "Some way to get out if the entrance is blocked? In case of a fire-"

He turned, blade swiping out, parrying Zabuza's blows. He skidded back from the larger man's force.

"I see windows," Jugo said. "Out to the school courtyard."

"Yeah," Naruto said, picking up a heavy encyclopedia and hurling it at the window. It _thunked_ off harmlessly. Good glass there.

Jugo's arm snapped out, and something exploded next to the window, shattering it outwards. The effect was immediate, the water falling out into the courtyard, dropping altitude.

Zabuza knocked Shikamaru down, raised the blade. Naruto grabbed another encyclopedia and sent it flying into Zabuza's head, throwing him back.

"Nice aim, kid," Shikamaru said, spinning around.

"_Kid_?" Naruto said. "What are you, maybe _two_ years older than me?"

"Sure, but ask Jugo. I'm wise beyond my years. Anyone who wants to keep breathing jump out that window."

Naruto leapt from the bookshelf to the ground and saw movement out of the corner of his eyes. A lifetime of persecution by assassins like Zabuza had given him fairly good reflexes. He rolled out of the way as the huge sword shot overhead and imbedded itself into the wall.

"Yes, run, guys, run," Zabuza said, laughing.

The encyclopedia Naruto hurled at the window before on the ground to his right; Naruto snatched it up and held it in front of his face, protecting him from the remnants of glass hanging in the window. One moment in damp library, the next in the cool wind of outside. He hit the concrete ground of the courtyard, rolled, nearly slammed into the massive oak planted in the center.

He got to his feet and heard Shikamaru and Jugo land behind him.

"Damn," Jugo said. "That guy's got a big sword-- _oof!_"

Zabuza slammed him into the side of the oak and the tree shuddered.

"Thanks," Shikamaru said, moving between Zabuza and Naruto. "I've been wanting to do that to Jugo all day."

"What are you guys?" Zabuza said, turning towards him. "Atkatsuki or something? You've got the stench of the amateur _all over you_."

"That's my everyday complaint exactly."

Backing up, backing up, soon Naruto and Shikamaru would hit the far wall and they'd have very little to run to get away from Zabuza's epic blade.

"I could make a deal with you," Zabuza said. "How about you run off, let me gut the little guy here, and we call it a night?"

"Can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Do you ever read the papers?"

"Very rarely."

"There was this civil war that broke out in-"

Shikamaru went one way, Naruto went the other; Zabuza's sword barely missed them. Shikamaru glided to the side, rolled and came up, cutting Zabuza with his sword.

A zen moment: Shikamaru's momentum carrying him across the concrete, Zabuza titled forwards, black gaseous material spilling from his side, his sword held out ahead.

Silence. Pause. Then: a low growling laughter coming from Zabuza. "Nice one, swordsman."

The black gas cleared up and the wound closed on Zabuza's side. Shikamaru bit his lower lip, glanced away."Huh."

"Yeah," Zabuza said, turning around.

"Well, the solution to this situation is obvious."

They both turned and looked at Naruto, who looked like he had had an epiphany.

He had. "Zabuza here is after me. _Not_ you guys. So-"

And then he was off, through the courtyard door and out into the school halls.

Zabuza sighed and adjusted his headband. "That kid sure can run."

"Apparently he practices," Shikamaru said.

"Right. Well. Time to give chase."

"Not if I have anything to say about it."

"What? Come on, kid, you've got to think about your own skin now."

"Well, here's the thing. I've watched you, seen your technique. And you know what? I think I can beat you."

"Really."

"Really."

"Heh. _All_ right-"

ooo

A meditative moment:

It was autumn, after all, cottonseed and leaves and blossoms pouring through the air. The glow of the school rose into the night, an orange albedo, and it turned the air's compatriots glittering, a ballet of the season's tossed bits. Itachi felt like a trespasser in this beauty, just a black figure perched on a rooftop.

Sasuke. He was here for Sasuke.

Something spattered against his hand. The vampire shifted, looked up, where storm clouds were rippling overhead in the wind. Rain began to fall.

It was the mere exposure effect, that nifty bit of psychology that made it so probable that Sasuke would fall for Ino simply by Kabuto's manuevering them together -- Itachi chose Ino for several reasons; she was beautiful, they shared several interests, socially she was an optimal mate-- and with Ino in Sasuke's heart, it made Sasuke's heart _pliable_, and that was good.

ooo

Inside the gym, it was very dark, the spinning coloured lights sweeping the room with low glow. It was a slow-dance -- the competition was over, the judges gone to ruminate -- and Ino and Sasuke were in with the rest of the students, stepping about to the beat of the song.

Ino didn't know what to make of Sasuke as a dancer. It had been an exhilarating experience, sure, but she couldn't tell if he enjoyed it or not; he always seemed to be concentrating so hard on the dancing that it was like he forgot to just _dance_.

"Sasuke-" she said.

"Mhm?"

"What do you think of Naruto?"

"What? Oh, I don't know. He's interesting, that's for sure."

"He always seems so positive-"

"He is that."

"Do you find him attractive?"

Sasuke snapped his head up, looking at her. "What?"

"Oh." A smile. "I guess I shouldn't be asking _you_ that, I guess. I don't know. You're a good dancer."

"He's better."

"Naruto?"

"Yeah. Boy knows how to dance."

"Really. Why haven't we seen him all night then?"

"That's a good question." They danced nearby Sai and Sakura, who sat at the sidelines. "Where's Naruto?"

Sai shrugged. "Haven't seen him."

No one ever asked Sai to dance and that was really the way he liked it. Every lone boy in the vicinity had asked Sakura to dance, though, but she held off, looking through the crowds for Sasori. Finally, she got up and moved through the dancers, looking for him. He couldn't _not_ be here, could he? This was the dance that _everyone_ went to. She'd even convinced _Sai_ to come to the dance. How could Sasori not be here, and how could he _not be asking her to dance?_

She bumped into someone who smelled very, very nice.

It was his collar she noticed first, the kind of high Dracula-collar that appeared in old monster movies. She noticed the long black coat, and then the dark eyes set into the symmetrical, gorgeous pale face. The dark hair. The long bangs. He almost seemed to glow.

"Oh my," she said.

He touched her and leaned down to whisper into her ear, and his voice, masculine and quiet and powerful, drew her into his embrace: "_Where's Sasuke?_"

"Oh god," she said, quivering. She found herself pointing into the crowd, pointing in the direction of Sasuke. When the dark-haired man left her and went in his direction, her knees buckled and she dropped to the dance floor. She touched her hair with shivering fingers and found frost tinging her head. Oh god, she thought.

_Sasuke._

Sasuke felt Itachi's presence before he saw him, and his heart froze a little. He grabbed Ino, drew her behind him as she protested, and stood his ground. He reached into his suit pocket, realized he hadn't brought any of his weapons with him. Surely Itachi wouldn't try anything in public?

Itachi appeared out of the gloom of the dance, and it was as if everyone else was dancing in slow motion, drifting along to their own molasses chill. "Sasuke."

"You get the hell out of here," Sasuke snarled.

"Sasuke," Itachi said, "my dear brother. I'm here to take you with me."

"Not going to."

"_Ah_ _but-_" Itachi said, suddenly behind him, suddenly grabbing Ino and baring her neck to him. "What about her?"

"Don't-"

"Then _come_ with me-"

This was wrong, Itachi thought. There was too much hesitation in Sasuke's eyes, too much thought going towards alternatives. He was thinking about saving the girl, not sacrificing himself to guarantee her safety, as he would with someone he was more attached to. Had Kabuto failed him? Had a single week been too short for two such compatible people to not find each other?

The doors to the gym opened, and Naruto appeared, soaked and tired, looking distraught. Sasuke turned to look at him.

And suddenly Itachi understood, saw the look in Sasuke's eyes, the sudden concern.

I have been wrong about everything, the vampire thought.

And then Naruto vanished from Sasuke's sight, the black fabric of Itachi's coat obscuring the doorframe as the vampire took the boy.

"Naruto!" Sasuke shouted.

"Sasuke?" Ino said, stumbling back. The dance was progressing at normal speed again. "Sasuke, what happened? I feel-- strange."

But Sasuke was already running.

ooo

"How did I not see it?" Itachi said, setting Naruto down in the center of the cafeteria.

"Right," Naruto said, scrambling back from the vampire, frightened."First order of the day: _who_ _are you?_"

"My name is Itachi," the vampire said, turning to look at the boy.

At first, Naruto couldn't tell what he was looking at. He was looking more at a _presence_ than a physical being. The force of Itachi's proximity was intoxicating. Naruto fought against it; he felt he was inhaling an aphrodisiac. He was reminded of mosquitoes, the way they injected anesthetic before drinking your blood. Get to Kakashi, he thought. That goddamn teacher would never explain why he knew about the shadows, how he knew how to get rid of Mizuki, but Naruto figured he knew how to deal with this _thing_, this beautiful thing.

"He'll be here soon," Itachi said, his black cloak like two dark wings closing in on Naruto. "Soon-"

Fangs, then. Naruto realized his chances of survival were plummeting, but the effect of Itachi's glance, the effect of his being so close, was quickly making Naruto stop caring. The fangs appeared, came towards his neck--

"Get away from him."

Itachi looked up sharply. It wasn't Sasuke, but some large ninja wielding some overexaggeration of a sword.

Zabuza showed teeth, grinning. "He's mine."

The vampire stood up to full height, black coat falling around his figure, staring at Zabuza darkly. The light in the cafeteria began to darken, shadows pouring in around Zabuza.

"Huh," Zabuza said, looking around. He took a step back.

"Leave," Itachi said. "Now."

"Can't do that, chief."

Where was Shikamaru? Naruto thought as he tried to fight against Itachi, tried to get up. Did Zabuza's presence mean a dead Shikamaru?

"Hey!" a voice shouted. "_Vampire!_"

Itachi turned. Sasori had appeared on the cafeteria counter near the kitchens, and he lifted a large mirror. Itachi flinched, raising his arm to defend himself, and the mirror shattered. Hissing, the vampire flew back, out of the cafeteria, into the darkness beyond.

"A mirror?" Zabuza said, musing. "Never would've thought of that, kid! Good on you!"

"Yes," Sasori said. "Deidara, you there?"

One of the ceiling panels burst open and Deidara landed beside Naruto. "Right here, boss!"

"We'll be taking Naruto with us," Sasori said, leaping off the counter to the floor.

"You kids really take the cake, you know that?" Zabuza said.

"Uh huh," Deidra said.

The explosive missile of clay struck Zabuza in the chest, and the effect of immediate, practically half of the cafeteria exploding in a sea of fire. Naruto cried out, watching the ceiling cave in and the walls pinwheel out into smoke and flame out into the school courtyard. Who _were_ these guys?

"Why didn't you tell me you could make an explosion that big?" Sasori said.

Deidara's mouth fell open, surveying the destruction. "I _messed up!_" he cried. "Arg, that was supposed to be a work of _art!_ It was supposed to be a tiny statuette of Aphrodite swooping towards him to kiss him on the mouth! It was supposed to be _poignant!_"

"Uh huh."

"Sasori!" Naruto said, getting up. "What is all this? Why are you here?"

"Shut up," Sasori said.

The smoke cleared and Shikamaru came through it into what was left of the cafeteria, coughing. His head was bleeding on the side. "Wow," he said. "Look, Jugo, it's the Mysteriously Missing Moron Twins. Where the hell were you two when that lunk was hurling us into walls?"

"Strategizing," Sasori said.

"Uh guys," Jugo said, looking around the wreckage. "Shouldn't there have been a body?"

"That wouldn't have killed him," Naruto said. "I don't think the shadows can be killed, really."

"I told you to shut up," Sasori snapped.

"Yeah, let's not listen to the guy who probably knows what he's talking about," Shikamaru said. "Good plan, Sasori, I guess that's why they pay you the big bucks."

The cafeteria doors slammed open. Naruto turned to look, expecting the worse, and saw a fierce figure -- Sasuke, angry as hell, eyes locking on Naruto. "Naruto!"

"Not another one," Sasori said. "Deidara, get rid of him."

But Deidara was hitting the floor, Sasuke planting two feet into him. Sasori was next, Sasuke slamming him into a table hard enough to crack the wood. Another tumble, and into the air again, this time driving Jugo down into the wreckage of the cafeteria. Sasuke came up, still moving fluidly, spun and-

Shikamaru caught his ankle, Sasuke's foot inches from his face.

"Let's not and say we did, okay?" Shikamaru said.

"Naruto!" Sasuke said. "Run!"

"I'm not going to leave you, if that's what you mean," Naruto said. "I think the two of us could handle him-"

"What do I have to do, you idiots?" Shikamaru said. "Do I have to hand out my resume to everyone who thinks they can fight me? Then everyone can see my credentials instead of having to find out through trial and error? Jesus Christ."

Naruto came at him anyways. Shikamaru got Sasuke in between his shoulder and his arm, hard enough to incapacitate the boy, then slammed Naruto in the stomach, doubling over, came back, got Sasuke in the throat, turned, got Naruto in a lock, twisting his arm back and throwing him into Sasuke, sending the two boys tumbling into the wreckage.

"There," Shikamaru said. "Can we put an end to his _let's fight Shikamaru_ crap now?"

The wind began to bring the pouring rain into the cafeteria. Lightning flashed once, thunder boomed, and the power in the cafeteria shut off, _whump_, plunging Shikamaru into darkness. Well, he thought; I'm surprised it lasted this long, with the explosion and all.

"Now," a voice said.

Lightning flashed again, and Naruto, picking himself up in the wreckage, saw an Itachi-shaped silhouette form itself in the darkness.

"It's all over," Itachi said.

"Sasuke," Naruto hissed, turning over and finding his friend. He shook him. "Sasuke, we have to go _now!_"

But Sasuke could only turn over and cough and cough.

"Sasuke, _now-_"

In the darkness, he heard Shikamaru cry out in pain. Naruto turned and saw the vampire step out of the cafeteria into the storm.

"Sasuke," Itachi said. "At last."

Oh no, Naruto thought.


	10. Chapter 10

With the rain in Naruto's eyes it was getting harder and harder to see. Lightning scorched the sky and he saw clearly the tree in the courtyard ahead of him as he stumbled forwards. He could feel the _thing_ pursuing them.

"Who- who is he?" he asked, pulling Sasuke along with him.

Sasuke coughed, his throat still trying to work after Shikamaru expertly almost caved it in. "He's -- he's my brother--"

"Your _brother?_"

Only a few steps to the door, only a few steps to the door-- "Your brother is a vampire?"

A vampire who landed gracefully in the watery grass ahead of them, standing between them and the door. Naruto turned instantly, yanking Sasuke the other way, trying to move as fast as possible. "Your brother is a _vampire?_" he repeated.

"Forgot the stake at home--"

"You carry a _stake_ around with you?"

Of course he does, Naruto thought; he carries _ninja weapons_ around with him.

"Tried to kill him a while ago," Sasuke said. "Didn't work."

"No, apparently not. Well, don't feel bad about it." Now they were over the wreckage, trying to get to the dark of the cafeteria. "He _is_ a vampire, after all."

A vampire who leapt gracefully through the air, touching down, again blocking them off from escape.

"Stop toying with us!" Sasuke snarled. "You goddamn _bastard!_'

When Itachi stood up fully, his face moved into shadow, his expression vanishing. Softly he said, "What will it be, Sasuke?"

Sasuke's voice was low, shaky with anger: "You go to hell."

Itachi began to glide towards them. Naruto realized the water was freezing to ice around the vampire's feet, the grass dying and turning black instantly with every step.

Naruto tried to back away; too late: Itachi grabbed him, lifted him from the ground, one hand squeezing the breath out of his throat. Oh _god-_

"Let him go!" Sasuke shouted.

Itachi turned his gaze onto the boy. He said, "You know what I want."

"So take it! Take me! Let him go!"

Itachi watched Sasuke steadily, then, slowly, ponderously, he released Naruto, set him down, his gaze never leaving Sasuke's. Quietly he said, "Come to me."

Sasuke took a step towards the vampire; Itachi held out his hand.

Naruto pushed off his feet, tackling the vampire, throwing them both into the darkness of the cafeteria. He heard Sasuke scream his name, but the last thing Naruto was going to do was let this creature hurt Sasuke. He just wished Itachi wasn't so damned _fast._ The vampire seemed to only shrug and suddenly Naruto was sliding across the cafeteria floor, banging painfully against every chair and table along the way, coming to a stop against the wall.

God, he could barely move. He tried desperately not to black out, to get moving, to get up.

He'd always been a fast healer and even as the busted lip Jugo had given him had healed, his cuts and bangs now were already closing up, letting him get back to his knees. "_Sasuke_," he heard himself say. There was the anger now, building up, that fatal anger he'd spent most of his waking life trying to quell. Keep positive, he thought; stay optimistic.

There had been times when it got loose, when reason gave over to sleek wrath. That was usually how he was kicked out of foster homes; that or the shadows had caught up to him. Something would happen and there would be damage.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Itachi approaching Sasuke, who stumbled, backing away from him. Sasuke had nowhere to go; how was he going to outrun the vampire? Or outfight him? The anger doubled. Naruto felt like he had a liquid molten core, burning away everything inside him that was flesh and bone. He got to all fours, growling, and sheer power invaded his blood.

"_Get away from him_," he snarled.

He was too angry to notice the bushy fox-tail that had sprang from his back. He cannoned towards Itachi.

The vampire caught him by the throat and threw him into the tree. Naruto barely noticed. Adrenaline was turning everything into a sped-up film He landed, not noticing the second tail that had appeared.

Sasuke had fallen down. He stared at him, eyes wide. "Naruto?"

Itachi watched Naruto, expressionless. Naruto flew at him, snarling, landed two kicks, came down at him with his fingers bent like claws. Itachi threw him to the ground and he instantly rolled to a crouch, a third tail appeared.

This time he hit Itachi hard enough to knock the vampire back a few feet.

Itachi stared. "Huh."

"_Naruto!_" a voice shouted.

It was Iruka, of all people, pulling himself from the reflective surface of the collected rainwater. Bleeding and battered, he yanked himself out, landed in a crouch. "Naruto! Naruto, look at me! You have to _calm_ down-- calm down."

Naruto turned to look at him, and at first barely recognized him, just another piece of meat to tear apart in his rage.

But then he saw Sasuke, who was staring at him, who said his name.

The film slowed down, the volume turned back up, and the molten flame bled away. The tails vanished into shadow. "Sasuke," he said. "Iruka? What are you doing here?"

"Very interesting," Itachi said. "Now, then, let's--"

It was as if the sky parted and let glory blot out the world. It lasted only a second, but it was a god-second, a second that sent every bit of Naruto's nerves crackling and sparkling. There was a tearing sound and a roaring like the moon had just collided with the earth. Flame burst up and Itachi hissed, flying back into the his dark shroud, back into the shadowed cafeteria,

It took Naruto a second to figure out what had happened: the tree had been struck by lightning.

Iruka grabbed him, pulled him along, dragging Sasuke behind them, shoving them into the school, into relative safety.

Running down the halls with him, he said, "The lights are out."

"The power's off in most of the school," Sasuke said. "I can hear the dance still going through; the gym must still have electricity."

"We need to evacuate the building," Iruka said. "Then we need to find Kakashi. Naruto, Zabuza's after you, and-- was that a _vampire?" _

_"_We should pull a fire alarm," Sasuke said. "Get everyone out that way."

Naruto didn't say anything. Half his brain burned with fear, the other shame -- how could he let the anger take him over again? Was he that weak?

The floor burst open ahead of them and foul water exploded forth, knocking them back. _You're mine, children_, the water hissed in Zabuza's voice.

"Back up, back up," Iruka said, retreating. He looked, found a fire alarm, and pulled it. A piercing siren rang through the school. Spigots on the ceiling turned on and water rained down onto them.

"Sure," Sasuke said. "Give him _more_ water to play with." He shivered. "We are so wet right now."

Zabuza wasted no time: the droplets came together, formed a massive translucent fist -- it crashed into them, throwing them farther up the hallways, sending them sprawling.

"_Urk_," Sasuke said. "I knew water could hurt, but _man_--"

Naruto got to his knees, thinking wildly. They had to get somewhere with no water. Surely the classrooms would be dry -- there would be important documents in there, textbooks, notebooks that couldn't get soaked. Ahead he saw hundreds of students rushing out through the gym doors, heading for the exit. He noticed something: they were only getting soaked when they came _into_ the hallway; they were dry coming out. "There's no water in the gym," he said. "Come on!"

As they reached the gym doors, the water reared back into a tidal wave and surged towards them.

"Oh good god," Iruka said.

Naruto got the door open in time; they fell into the gym as the water crashed down against the door.

It was dry in the gym, wonderfully dry. They got to their feet.

"Where do we hide?" Naruto said.

"No hiding," Iruka said. "Go through the fire exit over there."

"Outside?" Sasuke asked. "Itachi could be out there."

"We need to find Kakashi. He's probably outside with the rest of them."

The fire exit opened. Standing in the rain, framed by lightning, was Itachi.

"_Goddamn _you, Itachi!" Sasuke shouted.

"The stage!" Naruto said. "Hide backstage!"

They made it to the stage and threw themselves over, running behind the curtains into the world of wires, stage props, elevators, change rooms. It was very dark.

"There must be a fire exit around here," Iruka whispered.

Naruto watched through the curtains. Itachi walked steadily towards the stage, black coat billowing about him.

The center of the gym's floor exploded and the water main erupted, spraying water towards the ceiling. Damn, Naruto thought.

"Thought they could outwit _me?_" Zabuza shouted, coming through the gym doors. "I can bring water anywhere! ... oh, it's you."

Itachi regarded him for a moment, then turned back and began heading for the stage.

"No fire exit," Iruka said. "Well, _this_ is certainly a safe way to design a school's backstage."

Sasuke looked up, followed the stairs up to the upper platform, where he saw a ladder. "The roof," he said. "That ladder leads to the roof."

Naruto went for the stairs first and Sasuke and Iruka followed.

Itachi appeared on the stage as they reached the upper platform. "Sasuke," he said. "You can't run."

"Uh huh," Sasuke said.

Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw a figure perching on the other platform, hidden. Dismayed, he wondered who it could be-- who was this new threat?

Itachi's leg blurred and one of the supports for the platform shattered. The structure bent, one side tilting down horribly fast, tearing it away from easy reach of the ladder leading to the roof. Sasuke cried out, flying down, hitting the rail and toppling over. Naruto leapt after him, slid along the platform and caught his hand.

"_God_," Naruto hissed, teeth clenched, straining against the rail. "You need to lose some weight, man!"

"I'll keep it in mind--!"

Naruto pressed his other arm against the rail and wrenched as hard as he could, pulling Sasuke up. Why wasn't Iruka helping?

He saw why: Itachi had made it up the stairs and Iruka blocked his way. "You're not going through me," Iruka said.

Itachi blurred and Iruka flew back and collapsed against the rail.

"Oh god," Naruto said, pulling Sasuke onto the platform.

Itachi turned towards them. "Nowhere left to go."

Someone landed on the platform; it creaked with the new weight. "Uh huh," Shikamaru said. "Plenty of space to fight, though."

Crackling red energy exploded around his hand and a short sword appeared in his hand.

Naruto glanced at Sasuke. "Ever think our lives have been a little bit too ridiculous lately?"

Ten massive translucent fingers reared around the curtains, tearing them apart. The gym was exploding with water, floorboards bursting up into scraps of fake wood, pipes bursting and huge waves flying up and striking against the walls. Zabuza stood on a platform made of a frothy rapids. He was laughing and laughing and laughing.

Itachi and Shikamaru turned to stare at him.

"Yeah," Sasuke said. "Just a little bit."

"Naruto, you stay where you are," Shikamaru said. "I'll deal with these assholes."

Naruto glanced over and saw that Iruka had made it to the roof ladder. He was reaching out to them. It was a bit of a jump, but if Iruka had made it, surely--

"Time to kill some bitches!" Zabuza shouted, laughing, raising his sword.

Naruto and Sasuke ran forwards and leapt into mid-air as Zabuza's water crashed down against the platform, tearing the entire structure down. Iruka caught them, yanked them up, where they could grab the ladder.

As they climbed, Naruto looked behind him. Itachi was in the air, flying at Zabuza. Shikamaru had managed to grab a hold of the stage curtains and was climbing up them expertly, looking murderous.

Iruka shoved the roof door open and wonderful outdoor air and rain fell into their faces. They staggered out onto the roof and Iruka shut the door, looking around. "There has to be a ladder to get down now."

Outside. The wind fell into them, sending rain to try and soak them more than they already were. Naruto couldn't help but feel a surge of happiness through all the fear.

And a strange sight beheld them: beneath a small orange lamp, seated on a box, was a black umbrella, tilted so that the rain was not getting on a tweed coat. There was a small piece of folded paper propped on top of the coat.

Naruto approached it, staring. The folded piece of paper read: _FOR NARUTO._

"Huh."

"Naruto?" Sasuke said.

"Umbrella for you," Naruto said, tossing him the umbrella. "Keep dry." He pulled the coat on. It was Kakashi's coat.

"No ladder on this side," Iruka said, sounding frantic now. He went to the other side of the roof, clambering over piping.

Why would he leave his coat for me? Naruto thought. He reached into the pocket, felt something heavy, even as the roof gravel and tar was buckling upwards ahead of him.

"Naruto-" Sasuke said, backing away from the buckling roof. "Get back-"

As Zabuza exploded out of the roof in a flurry of water into the rain, Naruto pulled the object out of the coat, and understood.

"Right," Zabuza said, running a hand through his hair, slicking it back. He shifted his sword from one hand to the other. "Let's see what colour of blood Naruto bleeds."

"I know _you_ just bleed shadow," Naruto said. "That's all you are. Just a reflection. Just a trick of the light."

As Zabuza reared back with his sword, Naruto held his hand up, aiming the black mirror Kakashi had put in his tweed pocket.

Zabuza's eyes widened, seeing himself in the mirror.

"A reflection's reflection is just another shadow," Naruto said.

Zabuza gritted his teeth, tightened his grip on his sword, but there was still a clapping sound and he was gone, falling into the mirror, leaving only a dark imprint in the gravel.

The rain fell, the wind soared, and Naruto felt the tweed coat ruffle around him. He turned to see Iruka and Sasuke staring at him.

"Well, that was better than I thought," a voice said.

Naruto turned around.

Above him, perched on a pipe, was Kakashi, holding another umbrella above him, watching him through one drooping eye. "I was hoping you'd figure it out on your own," he said.

"Actually, I don't really understand it at all," Naruto said.

"You will, eventually."

"_Kakashi?!_" Iruka said, stumbling towards him. "You were here the whole time? Why didn't you help us?"

"Well, I figured the school will be closed for a few weeks as they try to fix all this damage this night has caused, so I thought I might as well make tonight a learning experience."

"You scumbag."

"Yeah."

Kakashi tilted his head, a smile in his eyes. He looked up. "It's starting to rain harder. I'll drive you guys home."

"What about Itachi?" Sasuke said.

"The vampire? I wouldn't worry too much about him." He opened his coat. Six or seven strings of garlic cloves lined him. "He'll use another exit."

ooo

The flashing lights of the fire engines played a strange sort of dance on Sasuke's face. They sat out by Kakashi's car, which was refusing to start. Kakashi let them keep a few garlic cloves while he and Iruka walked to Naruto's house to get Iruka's car. Naruto and Sasuke, exhausted, were happy to stay behind and watch the aftermath.

The fire fighters found no one inside, which meant Itachi and the members of Atkatsuki must have gotten safely out. Still, they had no idea what could have caused so much damage.

"It's almost pretty, isn't it?" Sasuke said, his voice low under the sound of the raindrops hitting the umbrella. "The lights, the stormclouds, all the leaves and rain in the air."

"Huh," Naruto said. "Didn't think you'd be the one to say something like that."

"We almost died tonight."

"Several times."

"I guess it has me thinking more about what's happening. Right now, I mean. The, hm--"

"Flush of life?"

"I suppose." He smiled. "I wonder if I won that dance contest."

"Maybe. I think you danced very well, actually."

"I'm sorry I never told you I had a vampire for a brother."

"That's okay. It's not the sort of thing that comes up in conversation, you know?"

Sasuke looked ahead. His eyes hardened, his mouth tightened. "He almost-- I couldn't let him hurt you."

"Well, thanks for the concern."

"Maybe we shouldn't-"

"What?"

"I thought maybe if we distanced ourselves in the future--"

"What do you mean?"

"He's going to be coming after you too. To get to me. He's my problem, I never should have--"

"You're asking me to not be friends with you because of some Dracula-wannabe?"

"I don't want anyone hurt."

"You don't want--"

"I don't want _you_ hurt." He looked up, that burning intensity in his eyes. "He's not going to hurt you on account of me."

"That's not going to happen."

"What?"

"I'm not going to stop hanging out with you because of that goth-pansy-!"

"Are you joking me? Did you not see what that-- that-- that _thing_ could do? He killed my entire family."

"What?"

Sasuke looked away. "I'm sorry. I should have told you. I didn't think he would ever--" He stood up, handed the umbrella to Naruto. "I'm going home. Maybe we could forget this. If I stay away from you, you'll be safe."

As Sasuke walked away, Naruto's mouth hung open. He knew that Sasuke was an orphan like him as well, but he never knew--

He stood up and threw the umbrella down to the ground, running after Sasuke. "_Hey you!_"

Sasuke stopped, a lone figure in the middle of the rain. He turned around and looked back.

Naruto stopped, exhausted, absolutely soaked, rain running down his face. He looked up into Sasuke's eyes. "You don't know how this shit works, do you?"

"Naruto-"

"_Shut up!_ You don't know how it works! You walk away from me now because of that thing you're giving him power, you're giving _him_ power over _you_ and that means-- I mean-- you're always more happy around me than you are anywhere else, that's what I seem to notice. You actually smile around me, or something like that. It's something I've seen, and I'm not going to let you just-- you're not going to--"

"Naruto, I'm not going to let him hurt you!"

"_He's not going to!_"

"And I don't-

"Sasuke--"

They stared at each other, rain pouring off their faces. Lightning flashed in the background, it thundered, it rained harder. Naruto grabbed Sasuke and kissed him.

"Naruto-" Sasuke said, stumbling back with Naruto's weight.

They kissed again. Sasuke was the taller one and Naruto had to go onto his toes. Lightning flashed again, and turned the world into bright light for an instant.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: After you read, feedback, reviews, and criticism would be amazing!

--

Sasuke, to his utter horror, found himself in his family home, back like it was before the murders.

He stood in the sitting room, the pool door ahead of him, open. Everything was immaculate, the way his grandfather always insisted it was, not a hair out of place. The leather couches were spotless, the room's colours autumnal, exotic souvenirs lining the walls and sitting neatly on mahogany bookshelves. Table lamps were on. It was dark outside.

There was the photograph on the table of his family. He picked it up, felt the burning sensation of tears threatening to come on. Still, setting it down, he looked around, wondering at the opulence of the place. Being in what he still thought of as the _real world_ made him understand just how stunningly wealthy his family had been. The pool outside, for instance, was gigantic. He could see the unnaturally blue waters beyond the doors, the lights turning the patio into a glowing heaven. Blue reflections played along the wood, wafting out into the night.

This was not a cozy sight at all. He sat down on one of the couches, picked up the photograph again. Itachi, the young boy looking darkly into the camera; Sasuke the tiny moppet clutching his mother's legs, their grandfather the pillar of sternness on the right. Had this photograph always been in sepia like this, or was this his imagination?

His shoulders were shaking, but he didn't think he was crying. He hadn't cried in a long time. Long time.

He wanted to leave the room, to get back to his crumbling old home in a small town far from here. This was, after all, the only room that had been untouched by Itachi's violence. This was where Sasuke had hid.

Still, though, that statuette on the bookshelf must be worth a fortune. Behind it those leatherbound books looked like first editions; each could easily boost a man up a tax bracket. He imagined Naruto's childhood, shuffled from one filthy abusive foster home to the next, brushing his teeth above a rusty sink, Mizuki and Zabuza snatching at him from within broken mirror. Well, Sasuke thought; I'll have to spoil the boy a little bit.

He rarely tried to regret things. Leaning over, he yearned for a cigarette. He hadn't smoke in a year; had barely smoked that much to begin with. He started during his climb up the social ladder, and halfway through cigarettes fell out of vogue, relegated only to when the Popular Kids drank. Only the socially awkward kids smoked openly now, on breaks outside of school. Sasuke had quit in a day. There was really nothing he couldn't do if he put his mind to it. Except kill Itachi apparently.

He didn't want to miss home. There was only darkness down that path, and a sort of cutting pain that used to paralyze him. There was the present to think about, and Naruto.

"Yeah Sasuke," a voice said, coming from the direction of the pool. "I like him too."

He expected Itachi. He was surprised to see the tall slender silhouette standing just beyond the pool.

"Why can't everyone leave him alone?" Sasuke shouted, going to the pool door. "Why can't you leave _me_ alone?"

"Maybe I will. Maybe I might turn my attention _elsewhere_."

Sasuke advanced out into the night towards the pool. "No. You stay away from him."

"Aw, Sasuke, you know how it is. These things have a way of escalating."

"You're supposed to be dead!"

"I get that from everyone."

Sasuke looked down. Naruto was on the bottom of the pool, looking up, blood flowing out of his eyes, twin red clouds billowing up. Sasuke shouted his name and pitched forward into the pool, scrambling through the water downwards.

Naruto opened his mouth and died the way Sasuke's mother died. The pool turned scarlet--

Sasuke woke up, kicking out, nearly falling out of his bed.

It was dark still, rain pattering against his bedroom windows. The room smelled strongly of garlic. "God," he said.

Naruto was a deep sleeper, nestled beside him in the bed, unfazed by Sasuke's crying out. Sasuke watched him, watched the covers raise and fall with his breathing. What a nightmare. Well, it was only two days after the incident at the school, so it made sense for some nerves to be a little flustered.

Something was tapping against the balcony doors. Sasuke got out of bed, approached them, watching the rain make rivulets of shadow fall down the glass. He opened the doors and a raven tumbled into the bedroom, soaked from the rain. It stumbled along, shook out its feathers and said, "Master Sasuke-"

"Christ," Sasuke said. "You found where I live."

"Erm. Sorry-?"

"Not a good time for this."

"My master requests that you and your friend Naruto join him for dinner."

"I refuse. Get out."

"He won't like that."

"He doesn't exist. Get out."

"What should I say?"

"That I refuse this and every other request he sends."

"Ah."

"And tell him to stay out of my dreams."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Get _out_."

The raven staggered over itself and launched into the rain with a cry. When it had vanished into the night, fork lightning lit up the horizon. Thunder rumbled. Sasuke stood watching the storm.

After a while he shut the door, latched it, went back to bed. As he sunk beneath the covers, Naruto flopped over and snuggled into him. Sleepily Naruto murmured, "Frequent flyers get lazy..."

Sasuke smiled. He lay back and tried to get back to sleep. He had heard a proverb once that all men talked in their sleep, but all Naruto ever mumbled was the nonsense-language of all sleep talkers. Sasuke wondered what _he_ said...

He tried to get back to sleep. Soon it would be daylight, which would be good.

The night had some scary things out there.

ooo

Sunlight turned the town park to glimmer and gold. Naruto leaned against a tall oak, sitting on the grass, Sasuke sitting between his legs, leaning back against him.

"Sasuke," Sakura said, throwing a frisbee to Ino. "Question for you."

"Shoot."

"What'd you want to do with your life?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, after school -- what are you going to do? Job-wise."

Sai, sitting under another tree, looked up from his notebook and snickered. "Nothing," he said. "Sasuke's a trust-fund kid. Doesn't need to work."

"Travel," Sasuke said. "I want to travel." And kill a man, he thought.

"I want to be a social worker, I think," Naruto said. "Like Iruka. I could help kids like me, you know?"

"Very noble!" Sai said. "I commend you."

"I want to be a train engineer," Sakura said. "Not the kind that builds trains, but the ones who drive them."

"A _what-?_" Ino said, tossing the frisbee back.

"A train engineer! I want to drive trains."

"Sounds like a need for a pretty big penis substitute there," Sai said. "Freud would have a field day with you."

"I'd have to move to Europe though. North America's rails suck."

Sasuke laughed. "I'm -- I'm just trying to understand -- why _trains_."

"Penis substitute," Sai said.

"I don't know," Sakura said. "I just like the idea of driving them. Seeing that landscape speed by. _Yeah_."

Ino caught the frisbee. "You guys are so _certain_. I don't know what I'm going to do. Go to college, I guess. Get a job."

"You're going to be an office drone?" Sai asked. "Ew. Way to give up."

"Well, _I _don't know. Doesn't sound like giving up to me. Giving up is, like, going and working at McDonald's your whole life."

"Wasting away in an office sounds just as bad to me."

"Well, what do _you_ want to do, little Miss Crossdresser."

Sai looked up. "I don't know. Actress-- I mean, actor."

"You can't act, can you?"

"Ever seen me?"

"Where would I have seen you?"

"Well, that's the problem with the school. _Terrible_ drama section."

"I was in a play once," Naruto said. "I played a tree."

"Maybe it was written by the same guy who wrote the one I was in," Sasuke said. "I was a hedge."

Sai laughed. "Parts suited to your thespian abilities, I'm sure."

Sakura caught the frisbee, and threw it back to Ino, who didn't catch it. Ino stared off at Hinata, who had appeared next a thicket of trees, the wind blowing through her black dress.

"Hinata?" Sakura said.

Hinata blushed, looking overwhelmed. She blushed and stammered. "I-i-is Sasuke there?"

Sasuke looked up. "Hinata!" He got to his feet, brushed off his feet, looked back at Naruto. "I'll be right back."

"Oh," Naruto said. "Okay."

Sasuke made it across the park to Hinata, who looked up at him, blushed fiercely and said, "W-w-we should go by a river."

She led him to a part of the park where it connected with the outskirts of the town, where the trees stood so tall and proudly around them that it was practically a forest. Here the light was dappled green and golden where it filtered through what little leaves there were left on the trees.

"T-this is a time of death for the forest," Hinata said, setting her messenger bag down next to a creek and sitting down on a rock. "It's not a bad kind of death. Just nature curling back within Gaia for the next season."

"You know more about this stuff than I do," Sasuke said, sitting down on a rock opposite him. "I just want to know how to kill him."

"Y-y-you shouldn't speak like that," Hinata said, looking at her feet. "You're a living being. You shouldn't want to destroy things."

"But he's already _dead_."

"So then it's useless to talk about killing him, right?"

"Garlic keeps my brother away. Mirrors do too. Holy symbols melt when he's near. There has to something to keep Orochimaru away."

"Orochimaru isn't like your brother. He's something-- he's something very different. H-h-he's like when life goes wrong, or when death goes wrong, I don't know. He's just this force of... not anger, but-"

"Sadism?"

"I don't think the Earth would create something _that_ evil."

"It created my brother."

"L-let's called Orochimaru misguided? Is that better?"

"How do I keep him away?"

"How we keep anything away, I guess." She clutched at the Celtic cross hanging from her neck. "With symbols, I suppose. We give symbols power. They keep evil away."

"I think he's coming into my dreams. I don't know how."

He became aware of how much the forest was exploding with life around him. There was moss on the rock he was sitting on, incredible amounts of cells and life drifting in the sunlight, and the grass beneath him, and the sun sparkling off the water as it ran by. The trees swayed in the wind. And then there was him, wanting to kill so badly. So badly.

"They want you because they see themselves inside you," Hinata said.

"Just give me a talisman or something."

"No talisman is going to stop Orochimaru, Sasuke. But he won't want you anymore if he can't see the darkness in you."

That darkness has to be there, he thought. It kept that force out, that dark crackling pain that hovered at the edge of his sight, ready to come in when he lost focus of his goals.

"Thanks anyways, Hinata," he said, standing up.

"W-wait!" she cried, grabbing at his hand. "There are-- there are some things you can do. Protective spells."

He looked down at her. She withdrew, frightened of him, frightened of the intensity in those eyes. The forest creaked around him.

"Put a jar of water out on your porch by the full moon," she whispered. "Sprinkle it around your doors and windows. And, most of all, _believe_ in it."

There was no change in his eyes. She could see it there, that razor-sharp slice of energy that animated him, the need to kill those who hurt him.

"Thanks, Hinata," he said.

The wind began to get harder.

ooo

That evening Iruka made a pot of coffee for himself and Kakashi. He peeked in on the boys -- Sasuke and Naruto sat in the living room, watching some zombie movie on television. He came back into the kitchen, poured some coffee for Kakashi. "Milk? Sugar?"

"Nah," Kakashi said. He peered into the distance. "Think this is a precedent broken?"

"Which? Naruto and Sasuke?"

"Oh, their little romance? Nah, they're just adorable. No, I mean Gaara. That boy. Getting powers from the spirit-world."

"_I_ certainly don't understand it." Iruka sat down at the table. "I can only imagine what his parents are going through."

Kakashi looked up at Iruka, saw the slashes and deep scratches tearing up the young man's face and arms, and said, "Yeah. His parents."

"I don't think moving here was a good idea," Iruka said. "Vampires and psychopathic students-- _you_ being here--"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"But we can't move away," Iruka continued. "Naruto's made _friends_, met Sasuke. It'd crush him to-"

"Me being here isn't all _that _bad, is it?"

Iruka smiled. "No, I guess not. I just-- I told you I'd stay away."

"Long time ago."

"I also told myself I'd stay away from the old life."

"I think we all did."

"I became a social worker."

"At least you didn't become a highschool teacher."

"I heard you haven't passed a single student."

"Nah, just a rumour I spread around to keep the kids on their toes."

"Clever."

"I am that."

Iruka laughed. He got up and went to the kitchen sink.

"That's jazz playing from the living room, isn't it?" Kakashi said.

"Yeah. Gershwin."

"You never used to listen to jazz."

"No."

"You used to listen to the Smiths a lot. And Blur. Lot of the British stuff."

Iruka turned around, shrugged. "Just part of trying out the new life. Had to get away from those memories."

"I still listen to the Pixies now and again."

"Of course you do. You're one of those _cool_ highschool teachers." He sat back down at the table, sighed. "We have to figure out a way to get that kid out."

"I'll figure out something."

"That's what you always say. Used to make me angry."

"Making you angry now?"

"No."

They looked at each other.

"This is good coffee," Kakashi said.

"You haven't drank any yet."

"I can smell it."

Iruka nodded.

"I preferred the Smiths," Kakashi said.

"Gershwin is excellent music."

"Never said it wasn't."

Iruka shrugged, smiled. He laid his hand on Kakashi's, looked away. A pause. He realized what he did and took his hand away sharply, getting up. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Iruka. It's all right."

"All right." He leaned against the kitchen sink, ran a hand through his hair. "All right."


	12. Chapter 12

_Clink._

The beer pitcher set down onto the table and amber liquid frothed over the side and slapped onto the table.

_Clink._

Behind Shikamaru some guy in a baseball cap sent a ball across the pool table into a side pocket. Jugo, half his face hidden in the bar's shadows, the other pink from the neon sign above him, stared at the pool table longingly. He looked at Shikamaru and said, "I can't believe this dump only has one pool table."

"He'll stop soon," Deidara said. "I'm sure the first three hours were just a fluke."

"He's not even _good_," Jugo snapped. "And who the hell plays pool by themselves anyways?"

"At least the place has good beer," Sasori said, glancing at Shikamaru. "Good beer, yes? Anyone? Good beer?"

"I _guess_," Deidara said, looking back at the women attending the bar behind him. "Why can't attractive girls ever come into dives like this?"

"Because attractive girls rarely go into dives,"Jugo said.

"See, I mention the beer," Sasori said, "because I would like to get a reaction from our Mr. Shikamaru here, who has spent the last hour or so sulking."

"Sulking?" Deidara said. "That's brooding. He's being broody."

Shikamaru glanced up at them, leaned back. "Are you guys going to be the ones to call the boss then?"

Jugo shrugged. "We figured you'd do it. You guys have good, erm, rapport."

"We were terrible. We are terrible."

Sasori shrugged. "You think too much."

"We were awful."

"How so?"

"We got our asses kicked?"

"Maybe _you_ did."

"That Sasuke kid almost beat you to death, Sasori."

"You kidding me? Ever heard of _feigning?_ I was _feigning_ all that crap."

"Well next time feign somewhere else. No room for feigning in this outfit."

"It isn't your outfit."

"No I guess not. I prefer outfits where the members don't get the shit kicked out of them."

"Hey, I _told_ you-!"

"I figure," Jugo said, "any setback's just going to make us stronger in the end. Next time, I'll strangle that Naruto kid harder, it'll be cool, don't worry about it."

Shikamaru's pager beeped. "Ah, that's her," he said. "I'll try and make you guys look good."

"Hey, _fuck_ you," Deidara said. "It was really dark and that high school kid came out of _nowhere_."

Shikamaru got up from the table, made him way past the pool table, where the guy in the baseball cap shot another side pocket, and went to the stairs in the back, down towards the grimy washrooms below. He fished his cell phone out of his pocket, tapped in some numbers, stepped into the men's room, stepped across the slimy tiles and looked into the smeared mirror.

"Shikamaru," the deep female voice purred. "You called when I asked."

"Never said I wasn't obedient when the task called for it. What's up?"

"Status report?"

A pause. Shikamaru regarded himself in the mirror, saw the bruises and the slowly healing cut on the side of his head. "I was going to blame my teammates, but I can't do that. We were attacked and we did not handle ourselves well. _I_ didn't handle myself well. I guess I failed you."

"So no Naruto yet?"

"No Naruto yet. I'll take the responsibility for that."

"You were attacked, you say?"

"Can't account for it. This town's got some interesting nuts in it."

"Well, Shikamaru, honey, I forgive you for it."

"Well, that's lovely to hear."

"But you _will_ get him, won't you? This isn't an I-give-up report, is it?"

"Never."

"That's why I like having you call me instead of the others."

"Jugo likes to give up?"

"No, but he takes the phone calls in the direction of his murdering people."

"You should try having a normal conversation with him."

"Give me a status report in two days."

"Two days."

"Luck, honey."

"Thanks."

As he hung up the door opened and someone came in, moved to the sink next to him and said, "Hi."

It was a woman, young. Her hair was bushy, unruly, and spiking out like she had attempted to keep it down but failing. Her eyes were intense. She was wearing black. "You're Shikamaru, right?"

The heck was all this? "Yeah."

"You're after Naruto, right?"

"Where'd you hear that?"

"Your friends upstairs were talking about it when I came in. And around the highschool where I go to."

"I hate them," he said. "I hate them so much."

"I want in."

"What?"

"I want to join up. I want to help kidnap Naruto."

"This has to be one of the most surreal conversations I've had all day. And when you meet the guys upstairs you'll understand just what I mean by that."

"My name's Temari. I know how to fight. Can I join?"

"Yeah, of course you can."

"What?"

"Of course. Atkatsuki's always looking for new blood. I'd be thrilled for you to join."

"Oh. Well. I expected more resistance, I guess."

"Have you _met_ the guys upstairs? We hire anyone. Come on, I'll buy you a drink."

"I'm underage."

"So are we. That's why people invented forgery. May I first ask _why_ you want to join us?"

Temari paused. She rubbed her arm.

Shikamaru shrugged. "You don't have to tell me."

"Just-- Naruto _didn't_ kill my brother."

"Ah-?"

"He's brave and friendly and wonderful and he didn't deserve what my brother did to him. And now Sasuke has him. I know what Sasuke is like. I think he killed my brother." She looked up at Shikamaru. "Sasuke took my brother away; I want to take Naruto away from him."

"Right," Shikamaru said. "So the reason is you're _crazy_. You'll fit in well here."

ooo

The rain had stopped and the world had settled down to dark clouds and strong winds. Naruto sat on the playground's swings, watching Sakura and Sai trade lipstick over near the slide, watching Sasuke sit in the wind, staring ahead. They were going to the beach today, despite the wind and the darkness of the day.

"We need to get out," Naruto had said. "Like, _really_ get out and do something."

They were waiting for Iruka to swing by with the car. Sasuke had seemed agitated ever since the beach idea was proposed, but when asked, he said he was perfectly fine with it.

Sasuke. Naruto watch him, watched the way his hair fluttered around his face in the wind, the perfect profile in that handsome face. What was he thinking? The problem with the intensity, as attractive as it was, was that it was always a mask to Naruto. Sasuke kept his emotions close.

Sakura was gung-ho about the beach, packing sunscreen, packing towels, packing a _bathing suit_.

"It's autumn!" Ino shouted at her from her seat on the slide. "You're going to _freeze!_"

"You're all just jealous," Sakura said. "You're just jealous that I'm going to be able to swim and you're not."

A flock of birds soared down over the playground to a miniature lake created by the rain. They touched down, flapping the water lightly with their wings, settled down. Naruto watched them, then spread out his arms and said, "Whoosh."

He turned back towards Sasuke. "Sasuke."

Sasuke looked up.

"Are you _really_ all right?"

A smile. "Yeah. Of course."

A car swung by the playground and Sai stood up. "It's beach time, folks!"

ooo

The beach.

The waves rolled, sweeping along in perfect dark blue-gray, swinging up under the dark sky. The wind made it hard for Iruka to read, constantly having to flip pages back where he sat on the towel.

Autumn, he thought. The death throes of the world, where it turned about into beauty and glorious violence, the bombast in the sky, the glittering leaves. Things would settle down into cold winter soon, but for the moment he enjoyed the constant motion of the dying season.

Naruto and Sasuke sat together, watching the waves, looking like two split forces of nature, bright Naruto, dark Sasuke. A poetic kind of relationship, that. They watched Sakura made her third attempt to go into the icy waters.

"She's crazy," Ino said, taking photographs of the rocks and vegetation encroaching upon the beach.

This was the only beach for some ways, about two hours out from the town. The coast followed along rocky cliffs, pebbly sand, and gray angry waters. Nestled farther up the road was a tiny fishing community called McAggus, consisting of maybe three hundred people. The beach rarely had tourists, especially during this time, which made it perfect of them to wander up it, fool around, have some fun.

A wave the size of a small house buried Sakura underneath its rolls, and she appeared, blue, chattering, looking determined.

"She's going to get hypothermia," Sai said, writing in his notebook.

"You're going to _freeze to death!_" Sasuke shouted.

Naruto looked at him, touched his hand. "Listen--"

"Mhm?" Sasuke said.

"Are you all right?"

A pause. "What do you mean?"

"You've been-- I don't know. Upset or worried or something."

"Have I-?"

"You've been worried."

"I suppose so."

They walked along the beach together, and up along the rocks that extended below the cliffs and into the water, as if trying to reclaim land for the dry. Waves crashed up, spraying up overhead.

"I guess I have been worried," Sasuke said, leaning down and picking up a rock.

"About me?"

"About you." He threw the rock. It skipped three times and disappeared into a breaker.

"You shouldn't be. I told you not to be."

"I've been trying not to."

Back at his home, he had let the jar of water out by the light of a full moon. The next day he had sprinkled the water along his windows, along his door. When he went to Naruto's home, he had taken some water along with him and sprinkled it onto their front door. "I've just been having bad dreams."

"I don't like seeing you concerned like this."

"Well, maybe I'll make an effort not to be."

The next wave crashed upwards, high enough to rain water down onto them. The water _was_ freezing. They stumbled back towards the cliff face, laughing, shaking off water. Sasuke caught Naruto's hand. Laughing, they leaned against the rock, looking out at the water. They kissed.

Kisses. Naruto pressed against him, pushing him back against the rock face. Warmth, and they were both soaked. Naruto touched Sasuke's wet hair, kissed him again.

"Oh god," Sasuke breathed.

The wolf howl came from above, from the top of the cliff. Sasuke broke from the kiss, looking up sharply. Another breaker crashed high above their heads, and beyond it the clouds were starting to get darker, more violent, boiling. "We should go," he said.

"What?" Naruto said. "And leave all this romance behind?"

"Naruto--"

Hands entwined in hands. Sasuke's fingers dug into Naruto's palm, came outwards, and coiled around Naruto's own fingers. A dance. Sasuke broke off the kiss, looked into Naruto's blue-blue eyes, much bluer than the water beyond.

The wolf cry came again, closer. This time, Sasuke got up to his feet, trying to ignore that Naruto was sitting below him, wet and gorgeous. He came out along the rocks, Naruto asking him what was wrong.

A wolf, standing at the edge of the rock face, staring at him. It was a moment of recognition, the way the wolf and Sasuke looked at each other, recognizing kindred spirits. No, the wolf wasn't the threat. So why did he feel so concerned-?

"Sasuke-!" Naruto shouted, getting to his feet.

Sasuke turned and the _thing_ came straight up out of the water, knocking him back with a hiss, scales glimmering. Sasuke rolled to the side, watching in horror as the giant snake crashed down onto the rocks towards Naruto. The impact pitched him up and out, and water caught him, tumbling him down into the deep.

Above, as the water took him, the chill claiming him, he saw Naruto dive down at him.

No, he thought; swim away. Save yourself.

But Naruto was swimming towards _him_, determination in his eyes, ignoring the beast that swept into the murkiness behind him. Naruto reached out his hand, mouthed Sasuke's name. Sasuke reached for him, caught his hand.

And then the snake swung back and tore Naruto from his sight. Sasuke screamed Naruto's name, scrambling upwards, but the serpent was too fast, disappearing into the darkness.

Sasuke broke the surface of the water, struggling for the rocks, screaming in anger. He could hear the others approaching him. They grabbed him and pulled him ashore, wrapping him in a towel. "He took him," he said. "Oh god he took him."

"Who took him? Who took who?" Iruka said. "Where's Naruto?"

"Orochimaru," Sasuke said. "Orochimaru took Naruto."

He almost dove back out into the water, but the others managed to pull him back. Naruto-! he thought; oh god, Naruto--

ooo

_Naruto._

Rose petals soared through the air, coming to float on the surface of slick puddles. Naruto realized he was floating on his back, staring up at a sky that had a sunset blazoned across its clouds. He turned, crawled onto grassy ground, came up to see two rows of rose bushes leading towards a large castle. White statues curved out of the rose bushes, a naked man looking to the sky, a naked woman contorted, her mouth open, a snake crawling up her leg, a statue of a griffon, suspended in mid-flight, as if it was frozen just it had burst through the rose bushes to the next. Rose petals and cottonseed filled the air.

Behind him there was a large ivy-covered gate and beyond that a dark forest, coming up, almost touching the gate. There was no one around. Silence seemed to be the choice soundtrack of the place. "Is there anyone there!" he shouted.

Creaking. He turned and saw the castle doors open.

"Hello? Who's there?"

Up the stone steps he went. There was a statue of a young boy, doubled over, clutching a wound in his side. Near the doors there was a statue of a woman on all fours, slowly changing into a beast.

And then there was the hallway through the doors, dark, curtains billowing from windows farther in. Naruto stepped forwards through the threshold and the doors closed gently behind him. "Hello?" he said.

Twin statues of cobras adorned the door at the end of the hall. As he approached them the door opened. He heard a piano playing somewhere.

What sort of person lived in a place like this? Naruto wondered how anyone could get around, with twisting stairways leading up into shadows, fluted elaborate engravings covering the walls, paintings of strange nightmares on the ceiling.

He passed two gigantic pillars, came into a large hall. Light streamed in through two windows, wind blowing two curtains out, twisting and dancing around one another. as Naruto entered the windows shut up, blocking the light, and a fire burst up in a massive fireplace at the end. The flames illuminated a long banquet table. There were clothes hanging over one of the chairs. "Hello!"

How did he get here again? He tried to remember -- he remembered a _snake_, some sort of serpent--

There were black roses hanging off the chairs and Naruto approached the dark clothing, the fire flickering off its fabric.

"Those are for you," a voice said.

Naruto turned.

There was a figure at the end of the hall, tall and gaunt. Pale. "The clothing," the figure said. "It's for you."

"Where am I?" Naruto said.

"There are cakes-- and grapes -- and more delicious food. Please, have a seat."

"Where am I?"

Ignoring the question, the figure approached the fireplace, becoming a silhouette against the massive flames. Naruto turned, warily watching him, and brushed against the clothing.

He cried out. The clothing was sticking to him like webbing. It coiled up, latched onto his throat, feeling cool to the touch, cutting off his air. He tried to cry out, tried to say something, but instead he stumbled back, choking, as the black fabric flickered up and grabbed his face, obscuring his vision. Snakes -- snakes were crawling across his skin, across every bit of his body -- he couldn't breathe--

And then he pitched forward against the chair, suddenly able to breathe. He was wearing black gloves that came up to his elbows. He was shirtless. He was wearing black leather pants that went to his knees. Catching himself in the reflection of the table, he sucked in his breathe. He resembled a sex slave.

"Sit," the figure said. "And -- talk with me."

"I'll stand."

"If you like. Do you know who I am?"

"You're Orochimaru."

"Good! We can get the introductions out of the way then."

"What do you want with me?"

Orochimaru was suddenly beside him, smiling, gaunt and narrow, snake-eyes. A long smile like a gash in his face. "_Everything_, Naruto. I want _everything_."

Naruto fell back, shocked. He crawled back across the floor staring. Orochimaru turned and laughed, walking back to the table.

"You're dead," Naruto said.

"Aren't we all," Orochimaru said, popping a grape into his mouth.


	13. Chapter 13

"Kakashi!"

The cry went up into the night. The wind swayed through the trees on the front lawns. The small house sat squatly between two taller houses. Even the tree was a small maple, dwarfed by the oaks on the lawns on either side.

Sasuke wanted to throw rocks, maybe hurl a goddamn boulder through the teacher's front window. He leaned against Iruka's car, glaring at the house, wanting to burn it down with his anger.

Movement. Sakura and Sai stopped shouting; Ino and Iruka stopped hollering. An upstairs window slid up, and Kakashi peered out of his squat little house and peered at them.

"Kakashi!" Iruka said. "Orochimaru took Naruto. We need your help!"

"Orochimaru?" Kakashi said. "Isn't he dead?"

"You _know_ he's still around!" Sasuke snapped, coming onto the lawn and stalking towards the house. "He's kicking around that crumbling castle of his and now he's got _Naruto!_ So get _down_ here!"

"Sasuke-" Iruka said.

"He's got Naruto?" Kakashi asked, leaning onto one elbow.

"That's what we _said!_" Sasuke shouted.

"Well, I don't know what we're going to do about that. Not something worth getting out of bed for."

"_Excuse_ me?"

"I don't know how to get to Orochimaru, and since I'm a lost cause I should be getting back to sleep."

"What the _hell_ are you talking about? Orochimaru's castle is in the forest!"

"So drive there."

"We _did_."

"And you found just an old crumbling castle? No Orochimaru?"

Sasuke said nothing.

"Just old ruins," Iruka said. "I don't know how to get to Orochimaru's world."

Kakashi shrugged. "What makes you think I do?"

Sasuke couldn't believe this. "What do we have to do to get you down here? Smash your car? We've got a tire iron in the trunk. Why don't I take it and smash your car up?"

"Oh no," Kakashi said lazily. "Not my Honda."

"Sasuke-" Iruka warned.

But Sasuke had already taken the tire iron out of Iruka's trunk and was advancing on Kakashi's car.

"Don't, Sasuke," Ino said. "This won't help."

"It'll help plenty," Kakshi said. "I have an excellent insurance policy on that wreck."

"I'm going to do it," Sasuke said, facing the teacher.

"Here's a question for the class. Why would Orochimaru want Naruto in the first place?"

Sasuke fell silent.

Kakashi watched him intently. "It's not like Orochimaru would have much need for the fox-demon. So _why_ Naruto?"

Sasuke forced himself to meet Kakashi's eye. "I don't know."

"But that's what I'd like to find out, Kakashi," Iruka said. "I need your help."

Kakashi turned his gaze onto Iruka. "All right. Let me grab my coat. But we'll still need to find someone who knows more about this sort of thing than I do."

Sasuke nodded. "I think I might know someone."

ooo

Sometimes it got so bad that Sasuke would find a quiet place to sit and fantasize about suicide. It was hard; you had to be in a certain state of mind to _really_ think about offing yourself, and he could never get there. instead he floated about in a sort of fugue state, unhappy to be alive and alone. During the winter he wanted to just lie down in the snow and not get up. During the summer he wanted to throw himself into the river. Yawning before him all he could see was an emptiness, compounded with Itachi's fluttering wings above. Sometimes he just wanted to leave.

Once he'd bought a ticket to Paris. He didn't know French, nor did he know anyone there, but it was the first name he saw on the vendor website. The name beneath it had been Amsterdam. He would have gone there if his vision had just been centered a little bit lower.

He'd driven all the way out to the airport and had sat in the airport's parking lot for four hours, thinking about classes he was going to miss, friends he was leaving behind, Itachi and that goddamn house. Finally he watched his flight take off and leave without him.

Naruto had been a swarming bright light bursting into the dust of his house. Sasuke was _not_ going to let Orochimaru have him.

"Hinata," he said to the others as they got into Iruka's car. "We need to go see Hinata."

ooo

Jugo leaned back in the passenger seat of Shikamaru's car as it drove slowly along the streets, following Iruka's car. "What I don't understand," he said, unwrapping a lollipop, "is why we're not back at Narutard's house waiting for him."

"What did he just say?" Shikamaru snapped. "What did he just say, guys? Did I hear him right?"

In the back of the car, Deidara and Sasori rolled their eyes. Temari sat staring through the window, watching the buildings pass.

"Don't tell me--" Shikamaru said, turning a corner. "Did Jugo just tell us we should go back and squat in that kid's place? Did he just say that? Deidara, care to explain to him _again_ why we shouldn't do that?"

Deidara said nothing. He glanced at Sasori, who shrugged his shoulders.

"You just can't appreciate the simplicity of my plans," Jugo said. "You're just addicted to your own overly-complicated shit-ideas, that's what."

"Let me drive you back, Jugo. Let me _drive you back_ and then _you_ can sit in that house and get shot my the police the moment their fingers hit nine-one-one."

"You pussy; we'd grab the kid and disable the guardian. What's the-- I just don't know what the problem is here."

"The problem is that there's too many unknowns. _Obviously._"

"What's obvious?"

"They could have friends come over. They could drive out and stay at some other place for the night. They could drop in with a whole party behind him."

"So we disable a bunch of people. More the merrier."

"You want to get nabbed by the police I'll go drive you back."

"I think it's better than just following their car around."

"We _know_ how many people are in there. We can see them. We know what they look like. We always have them all in one localized area. I like that. I like _knowing_ these sorts of things."

"You just don't know how to live dangerously."

"You want to play daredevil I'll drop you off by the bridge."

"Love you too, Shikamaru."

Temari looked up. "We're not planning on hurting Naruto, are we?"

"If we have to," Jugo said, grinning.

"If we _have_ to," Shikamaru said sharply.

"I don't want him to get hurt," Temari said.

"What," Jugo said, "You in love with him or something?"

"Something like that."

Shikamaru cocked his head towards the back of the car. "What was that?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Are you sure? Because that sounds like it could be something to worry about."

"You won't have to."

ooo

Hinata's house was a narrow white-washed old house in the north end of the town, away from the suburbs, nestled in between two orchards. She lived with her grandmother, who could always be seen gardening during the warmer seasons. The rosebushes were bare now and leaves swept up along the car tires as Iruka passed them, pulling into the driveway.

"Stay here, I guess," Sasuke said, getting out of the car.

"I think I should come with," Iruka protested.

"It's all right," Ino said, nodding. "Hinata would probably have a minor heart attack if we all showed up on her doorstep."

Sasuke crossed the dark place between the car and the light above Hinata's door. He glanced back at the car, squinted into the headlights, turned back and knocked on the door. Had they been followed coming here? Sometimes he could never tell. Town roads went onto country roads, went onto highways. Someone could inadvertently follow you from one end of the town to another just to turn onto highway eighteen.

The door opened. It was Hinata, looking terrified, wearing flannel pajamas. She looked tiny there in the large old door frame.

"Hinata, hi," Sasuke said. "Sorry to bother you, but I need your help."

"Oh. Come in."

This was unusual. Hinata sort of backed off into her living room, leaving Sasuke to cross the threshold of the door. He closed it behind him. He had never been in Hinata's house before. It was dark, only a single lamp turned on in the living room, the orange glow spreading to an easy chair, a coffee table, a painting on the wall, but to not much else. Maybe he caught her in the act of some reading.

She went and sat down in the chair, picked up the book, started fidgeting.

"Hinata, is everything okay?" he said.

"Sasuke," a voice said.

He turned, and saw Kabuto standing in the hall opposite him. The hell was he doing here-?

"How are you doing, Sasuke?" Kabuto said, smiling.

"Fine," Sasuke said.

This was wrong. This whole thing was surreal. Kabuto used people, yes, but would he ever take someone like Hinata under his seductive wings? Would Hinata let him?

Something hit him like a train, throwing him into the wall behind him hard enough to cross his eyes. He hit the carpet, and so did two photographs that had been hanging there.

"Oh god," he said, turning.

The shadow in front of him solidified, unfurled outwards, grabbed him. "Sasuke," Itachi said.


	14. Chapter 14

The vampire's shape filled the dark places in Sasuke's vision. Oh god, he thought; how is this happening? This doesn't make sense; how could Itachi _be_ here?

He rolled to the side, found a hallway heading into shadow, chose it and ran. If he found a window he could throw himself through it, but out in the open he'd be even more of a sitting duck. Running through orchard fields with a vampire on his tail wasn't his idea of fun. Goddamn vampires.

A glimmer through a window -- moonlight; he nearly ran into an old stove -- a kitchen. A knife maybe? Somewhere -- a sharpened wooden stick maybe? Even as he yanked open drawers he knew Itachi should've been on him by now; the vampire was fast enough. He risked looking back: sure enough, Itachi stood in the dark of the hallway watching him.

This didn't make sense. Hinata's house should have been well protected: she and her grandmother were both accomplished witches. He found a knife and turned around.

Itachi hadn't moved. "Naruto," he said.

"What about him?" Sasuke edged along the kitchen counter. He wondered if he could reach the back door. There were always back doors in these old country kitchens.

"Orochimaru took him."

"You know that, do you?"

"You want to save him."

"Kabuto."

"Mhm?"

"You've been working with Kabuto. He asked Hinata to come in, she let him, and you followed. He let you in."

"You can't handle Orochimaru by yourself, Sasuke."

"And a vampire could, is that it?"

Itachi's eyes flashed. Sasuke cursed himself; he shouldn't have let himself get into such close quarters with the vampire; he shouldn't have looked into the vampire's eyes. He felt the effects immediately: he dropped the knife and fell back against the counter, mouth open, sweat breaking out on his brow.

The vampire was suddenly close to him, touching his hand, cold. The flowers in the pot on the counter were wilting, tinged with frost. Itachi spoke, "You've felt the agony of life long enough."

"Oh god," Sasuke breathed.

Itachi was very close now. "It's time for you to be with me."

"Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh god--"

Bared neck, the white of his skin open to the moonlight. Itachi had no breath for him to feel as the fangs descended.

Noise. The vampire's mouth snapped shut as he looked up. Kabuto's limp form flew into the kitchen, skidded across the tile. Sasuke hit the ground, bumping his head against the cupboards. He was still under the effects of Itachi's proximity, which made the next few seconds a little confusing.

Ino knifed through the darkness. Itachi was too fast, blurring around her movements and sweeping up at her. Ino slid back, somehow still alive and kicking. Sasuke didn't see what she did, what martial art she was using. Hinata appeared behind her, terrified eyes glistening in the moonlight. She forked out a fistful of dried white cloves.

Itachi hissed, blurring backwards, and was gone, the back door hanging open, banging against its frame.

"Good god," Sasuke said. His erection, uncomfortable in its stiffness, throbbed against his leg. "Good god."

That had been the worst one yet.

ooo

Iruka's car motored through the dark of the forest, the trees becoming shuddering fingers in the headlights. Ino tapped the window, staring out. "Maybe I should keep an eye on you, Sasuke," she said.

Sasuke was a dark silhouette in the back of the car. His voice was steady, almost a growl. "Why?"

"Because of your brother. Would've had you back there, right?"

"He would have done the same to you."

Kakashi looked back at him, then looked out the window. He snickered.

"He could be in the trees right now," Iruka said, keeping his eyes on the road. "Goddamn it. There just _had_ to be a vampire in this town."

Sasuke leaned forward, into the light thrown back from the headlights. He looked paler than ever, his hair wilder than usual. "Next time that happens you guys stay away. It's just me." He sniffed. "Just me he wants."

"Shya right," Ino said. "We're not going to let him have you."

Sakura and Hinata exchanged glances. Sai just looked at his feet.

There had been an argument. There had been a lot of arguments. They had argued about what to do with Kabuto, about what to do with Sakura and Sai (Iruka wanted to drive them home; they wanted to help Naruto), about what to do about weapons. Sasuke had demanded they drive back to his house, to pick up his blades, his chains, his stakes.

Kakashi had watched him, eyes glittering, and then said, from the shadows of Hinata's living room couch, "What do you expect those all to do against Orochimaru?"

And what to do with Kabuto? They'd decided to leave him for now, drop him on the side of the road, deal with him later. Every minute that passed was another minute Naruto's life was in danger.

Ino had been fond of mentioning that. She had stood in the doorframe of Hinata's house, arms crossed, looking cross. "Every minute," she'd said. "Let's stop bickering and let's get going."

Iruka wondered who would turn out to be the leader of the group if Iruka and Kakashi hadn't been there? Sasuke and Ino were the prime candidates, but Sasuke was getting to be more and more unstable the more the night wore on. Could you blame him, though? Goddamn vampires.

Iruka glanced out of the corner of his eye at Ino, who stared straight ahead, determination in her eyes. What kind of highschool girl was she?

And then, looming out of the night, over the tips of the forest, was Orochimaru's castle.

ooo

The castle, of course, was no more a castle than some ruins. Nature had almost entirely taken it back, ivy and roots clutching the stone in their grips.

"Do- do you feel that?" Hinata said, taking a few steps away from the car. "How cold it is?"

Ino could. She shivered, rubbing her arms. She glanced at Sasuke, who stood like a sheet of black against the night sky. He didn't seem to be feeling the cold. She knew his love was in danger, but that made him reckless. She wonder if he could be counted on in a pinch. She wondered if she could count on the _adults_ in a pinch. Kakashi was sitting on the hood of the car reading a book by the light of a tiny flashlight, seemingly oblivious to everything around him. Iruka just looked worried all the time.

She wished Sakura and Sai had agreed to go home. They didn't have any training for something like this. _She_ barely had any training for something like this, but she knew a little at least.

_A _little_, Ino-darling_? she said to herself; _martial arts has become a bit of an obsession for you, hasn't it?_

She took a step down towards Hinata, her sneakers crushing the rocks beneath her. And there was just rocks. Nothing but the ivy and the tree roots grew in this place. It was so cold.

Hinata was drawing something in the ground with a stick. She made symbols, then stepped back, judged her handiwork, then drew a large circle around them. "E-everybody into the circle."

"Okay I want everybody to stick together," Iruka said, walking down to the circle. "_Everybody_. No one wanders off at all. We'll get in, Kakashi and I will hold Orochimaru back for as long as possible, you guys grab Naruto and then we'll get out. It'll be simple."

Kakashi looked up. "It's always simple, isn't it, Iruka?"

Iruka looked worried. He shrugged.

Everyone got into the circle. Sasuke stood in the center, a silhouette, a black hole in the dark. I better be able to trust you, Ino thought; you're the only other one who can fight here.

"E-everybody, erm, ready?" Hinata squeaked, looking completely out of her element.

"Hold on," Kakashi said. He finished the page he was reading, turned it, and then looked back at her. "Okay, go."

She stared at him, then faced the night, and clapped her hands.

ooo

Orochimaru's words slid through the flickering air of the room: "Is there-- anything you would like to-- discuss?" A smile. Sensuous lips pulled back. "I'm a master of conversation." A chuckle. "Sometimes."

Naruto stood on the other side of the room, bare feet on cold stone. He had backed up as far as he could. "What do you want with me?"

"A little conversation, perhaps?"

"That's it?"

"What else?"

"Why _me_, though?"

"Why not?" Another smile. "Is one boy like another? You do have your own--" An appraising glance. His gaze slithered over Naruto's body. "-- charms."

"I can run."

"_Yes_. You can, can't you?"

"What if I just took off right now?"

"I'd be disappointed." He leaned back in her chair, looked at the ceiling. "Quite -- disappointed."

Naruto's limbs twitched. He looked at the hallway beside him, leading off to somewhere else in the castle. Did he dare run?

"Sasuke--"

Naruto looked back.

Orochimaru now stood near the dining table, sampling a grape. "How is he?"

"That's none of your business."

"Some conversation, that's all. Perhaps I should show you your quarters. You must be -- _exhausted_."

"I'm fine."

"Then stay. Talk."

"I've got nothing to talk about."

"_Please_. You must have thoughts in your head. Such thoughts."

"I've got no thoughts."

"That so? Would you like to try some wine?"

"No thank you."

"Try some."

"I said no thank you."

"So you did."

"Please let me go."

"Why?"

"I don't want to be here."

"You'd rather be with Sasuke?"

"Why do you keep bringing him up?"

"He's--" Another smile. "-- an obsession of mine."

"So I'm your bait."

"As I've said--" Another glance. "You've your own-- benefits. You could be an obsession all your own."

"I won't let you hurt him."

"How nice. Come. Let me show you to your-- quarters."

"I'll stay here, thank you."

Another smile. "As you wish."

Orochimaru turned and strode down one of the hallways, vanishing. Naruto watched him go, then fell to his knees, tired. Oh goodness, he thought; what have I gotten myself into?


	15. Chapter 15

Ino was the kind of girl who seemed like she should be accompanied by jangling electric guitars. Even when she was crouched in the pool, the water soaking her sneakers, soaking her pants, she stood with an easy grace, looking about with flashing eyes that were shields of their own; eyes like that reflected only her own ambitions; the evil of a place like this couldn't penetrate them.

Rose petals rested on the surface of the pool. All around her were statues and rose bushes and hedges. Above the sky throbbed, the colour of a sunset. Trees in the distance, and then the dark maw of the castle before her. She was alone.

That wasn't good. Did that mean the others were alone too, split, scattered along this place? She emerged from the pool, stepped onto the mosaic that was partially covered with leaves and ivy. The wind rustled the rose bushes, swept along the white surface of the statues.

ooo

Naruto stepped out onto the balcony overlooking the rose gardens and reflecting pool. Behind him were his quarters, he assumed. He had found them on his own, while he was traversing the darker places in the castle. The room was large, cold and empty. A black four-poster bed, a large wardrobe. There was a mirror, which frightened him, but the glass was so smeared and opaque that he doubted it was any danger. There were a number of suits hanging in the wardrobe.

On the balcony rail, a twisting cord of ivy began to move.

No, not ivy. An adder coiled up, looked at him lazily. He backed away. How did Orochimaru think he was going to sleep in this place if there were snakes everywhere?

"Nice view, ain't it?" the adder said.

The shock at the snake talking came and passed quickly; it was no nuttier than the rest of Naruto's day.

"Pity there's not much else," the snake added, looking out at the reflecting pool. "There's the castle and the rest of the spatial dimension, but it only goes as far as Mr. O's psychic influence extends."

"What _is_ Mr. O, anyways? Who is he?"

"He's kind of a ghost, I guess. Kind of."

"Can all the animals here talk?"

"No."

"Oh. Who was-- who was Mr. O when he was alive then?"

"God, I dunno." The snake twisted up, bobbed up to meet Naruto's gaze. "He was a scholar, I think. Some sort of scholar. He's got that library of his. I don't know. He doesn't tell us animals much. We get kind of a rough deal here -- there's no sun for us snakes to lie in; not much of a sky for the birds to fly -- oh, something's happening."

Something was. A dark flock of black birds were wheeling and swinging over the woods beyond the rose garden. The tornado swung about then shot down, disappearing into the trees.

"Wonder what's going on," the snake said.

The room door opened. Naruto looked back, saw a raven standing in the door frame, wings outstretched. "The master," it said, "has requested you get ready for dinner. Jackets and pants are in the wardrobe."

"I don't really want to join him," Naruto said. "Given my whole forced captivity and all."

The bird shrugged. "It was a request."

"What does he want exactly? With me, I mean."

"To have dinner with you?"

"No, I mean-- this. All of this."

"The castle?"

"His kidnapping me."

"Oh, I'm sure I have no idea, sir."

"I'd like to go home."

"Me too, sir. Inform me if you change your mind about the dinner."

The bird turned and vanished into the dark corridor. The door slowly closed behind him.

ooo

Sasori and Deidara were starting to regret following Shikamaru's orders to get into the circle Hinata had drawn, which has sent Sasuke and the others off in a now-you-see-them-now-you-don't kind of way that scared the crap out of them. Especially now since they were now alone -- Shikamaru, Temari and Jugo were nowhere to be seen. Sasori and Deidara stood under dark gnarled trees. Above a black clouds of crows lunged down at them.

They ran.

"This place has quite the aesthetic!" Deidara shouted, skidding down a leafy hill and heading past the trees. "A gloomy but deadly sort of atmosphere, don't you think?"

"Now is not the _time_, Dei!" Sasori shouted, running after him.

The crows swept down at him. Sasori leapt off a tree trunk, dashed across the branches, escaping their snapping beaks. Deidara spun, throwing globs of clay. Explosions rocked the tree tops, branches falling, crashing into the piles of leaves.

He landed and his legs sunk into the ground up to his knees, the soil turned to a dark gloppiness. "Oh," he said. "Not good."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sasori land. Sasori turned and saw him. That was when the skeletal hands burst from the muck, snatched his collar and yanked him down, the blackness closing over his face.

"Oh good god," Sasori said, stumbling back. "Oh good god."

ooo

There was a noise and that noise was the creaking of the tree branches in the wind, and the sound of Sai's weight from where he dangled from his dress from the tree.

Down below, a flash of pink. "You look ridiculous, Sakura said. "Absolutely ridiculous."

"Oh do I?" Sai said, twisting slowly about, looking down at the young woman. "That's crazy. Can you imagine? Ridiculous. Who would have thought?"

"This is why you don't wear dresses. Jeans work for every situation imaginable."

"But then I wouldn't be fashionable. Can you see my purse anywhere?"

"Oh, you'd rather hang from a tree than be unfashionable? Is it really _that_ important?"

"No, what's important is staying graceful under stress."

"So you have to wear a dress, then?"

"A well-tailored dress is grace incarnate. Listen, could you please see if my purse is around?"

"Why-- why do you need your purse in a time like this?"

"It's got my cigarettes in it."

"Oh, yeah, _cigarettes._ Those are important."

"Think you could, I don't know, help me down, instead of standing there?"

"Dude, you're, like, fifteen feet up."

"So?"

"So that's _really_ high up."

"Yeah, and I'd really like to not fall to my death, thanks."

"What do you expect me to do? Shimmy up there? Catch you?"

"I don't know. Try and find my cigarettes."

"Shouldn't we, I dunno, look around for the others? We'll find Hinata. Her circle-thing put you _up_ there."

""Well don't -- don't _leave_ me here."

"Stop moving -- you'll fall--"

"Yeah, I'm aware, thanks."

"Why do you smoke so much anyways?"

Sai didn't say anything. The reason for his smoking was lost to antiquity, a twelve year old boy watching the flickering images of Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Vivian Leigh, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Audrey all suck ash in their own inimitable way. When they smoked, the cigarette became a part of them, part of the grace of their movement.

Sakura had never smoked. The smoking fad at the highschool had come and gone without snatching her up. Fads never touched her; Sai knew Sakura would go on to college or university or wherever, unsoiled by the prejudices of the previous school. She rarely even drank, not out of some principle, but rather just that alcohol had yet to really float into her metamorphic existence. She would drink when she wanted, not drink when she wanted. The social context never mattered to her.

"Maybe I should have a look around," she said.

"Sakura," Sai said, "if you leave me here, I swear to God I will hunt you down and bury you."

The bush next to Sakura rustled and Kakashi emerged from it, standing up straight. "Children," he said. "We need to stop bickering."

"Mr. Kakashi," Sai said. "Oh thank god."

After they got Sai down, they pushed through the trees and found a rushing river. Bushes and small trees grew alongside the water, and beyond they saw Iruka crossing, stepping lightly over a series of stones.

When he reached them he said, "I can't find Hinata or the others. That spell was supposed to drop us into a localized position, dammit."

"Yeah," Kakashi said, stepping past him and peering into the trees.

"Orochimaru did it," Iruka said. "He had to have. He -- I don't know -- screwed up the transport, the -- the whatever--"

"Ghosts were always your specialty, right?"

"Long time ago," Iruka said. "We were -- we were just a bunch of kids, weren't we? Lucky to still be alive. God."

Kakashi turned, regarded him intently. "Sure."

"At any rate, the creatures we used to fight were very different from Orochimaru."

"What's the plan then?" Sakura asked.

"We find my _purse_," Sai said, pushing aside brush and branches, looking around.

"We have to find the others," Iruka said. "Kakashi--"

"Yes?"

"Take the others and go find Sasuke and Hinata and Ino. I'm going to that castle and get Naruto out."

"Alone?"

"I'm the one with the most experience with ghosts, right?"

Something sparkled in Kakashi's eye. "Right."

ooo

Who would build a castle like this?

Ino pirouetted slowly on the top step of the castle, surveying the statue garden, gazed at the roses, the ivy, the trees. Who had the money for all of this? What year was the castle anyway? There were turrets, and spires-- certainly this wasn't a castle made for war or protection, though: there were no outer embankments, no walls, nothing resembling a fortress except for those turrets. Decoration. Anyways, she thought; I suppose no one builds a gigantic castle out in the middle of the woods for protection. Who _was_ this Orochimaru?

She tried the doors. Some sort of dark wood, laced with a metal -- bronze? They were huge. They were locked. Great.

She wondered what it would be like to grow up in a place like this? She herself grew up in a farmhouse out in the middle of fields and pastures. Every time she stepped out the door the wind would try its best to throw her off her feet.

It must be quiet in a place like this, sheltered from the wind by the trees and the shadows.

Doors had never stopped her for long. There was a window a story up. She leapt, kicked off the stone, yanked herself up the ivy and grabbed hold of the windowsill.

Oh goodness, it was slimier than she expected. She dug her feet into the stone, trying to keep her grip, but, oh no, she was slipping, she was going to--

The window slid up and someone reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her up and into the castle.

It was Sasuke.

"_Jesus_," Ino said, looking up. "The hell are you doing here? Where's everyone else?"

"No idea. Could you _please_ be quieter?"

Where were they? Ino straightened, looked around. A small chapel, pews made of oak, and an altar near the front. Stained glass windows, but not one showing anything Ino associated with Catholic imagery.

"Demons," Sasuke snarled, going to the door at the back of the room. "Devil-worshippers. That sort of thing."

Something about that didn't feel right to Ino. There were women in the windows, but they seemed more interested in bathing underneath waterfalls than in demonic orgies. The men had antlers, not horns. Some of the women had the legs of goats. Many of them were busy copulating, either with each other, with animals, with trees.

"What kind of castle _was_ this?" she asked.

"Who knows?" Sasuke said darkly, pulling open the door and peering out. "Does it matter?"

"How'd you get in?"

"Same as you. Climbed."

"Have you seen the others?"

"Not yet."

A voice said, "This was a shrine to a fertility cult once, a long time ago."

They turned sharply. Sasuke sucked in his breath, gritted his teeth.

There was a man sitting in a pew, facing away from them. He was tall, lanky, perhaps gaunt, but Ino could not see his face. Even when he cocked his head to look at them, the shadows obscured his features. "You can imagine how pagans were frowned upon three hundred years ago."

He titled his head slightly, the light encroaching upon his jawline. Ino saw a thin pumpkin grin spread across his face. "Sasuke. You _came_."

Sasuke stepped forwards, gazed levelly at Orochimaru. "Listen to me. Are you listening to me?"

"Oh _yes_."

"I've been training and learning how to kill people since I could walk. I've studied a lot of martial arts in my lifetime. I can think of at least nineteen ways to kill you where you stand right now."

"How _lovely_."

"Do you understand me?"

"You're threatening me?"

"I am. That's exactly what I'm doing. I want to make myself as clear as possible. Take me to Naruto right now or I will kill you."

"I thought I was already dead."

Sasuke shifted, pulling a large frying pan from inside his coat. Orochimaru watched him intently.

"Sasuke," Ino said, "that's a frying pan."

"It's an iron frying pan," Sasuke said. "Do you hear what I'm saying? It's made of iron."

"Yes," Orochimaru said. "And iron can harm the fae folk, the elves, the boggarts, the redcaps, the et cetera, et cetera."

He stood up, turned, walked up to Sasuke, coming into the light. Ino stepped back; she hadn't been expecting those eyes. Snake's eyes.

Sasuke swung the pan. Orochimaru caught his wrist, twisted it, snatched the pan away in his free hand. The gaunt man examined it, turning it over. "You don't see these very often any more, do you? Iron pans. All teflon now, yes?"

Sasuke stared angrily. Orochimaru released his wrist, shrugged. "I'm not one of the fae folk. _Right_, I'd like to invite you all to dinner. Naruto will be there, I think."

He turned around, approached the altar, set the pan down upon it. "All in all, it will be a _lovely_ affair."


	16. Chapter 16

"What do you see in him exactly?

Temari looked up, surprised by the question. She said nothing, watching Shikamaru hack away more vines, letting the two of them move forward through the ankle-deep murky water.

Stepping into Hinata's witch-circle had dumped them into a swamp -- and what a swamp it was: twisting, curling trees, bowing down towards the opaque waters, vines dropping like curtains. The water reflected the golden light from the sky.

"Well?" he said, looking back at her.

"Well what?"

"What do you see in him? In Naruto, I mean. You said you were in love with him."

He hacked away more vines. They splashed into the water. She looked up at him, saw the smile on his face. "Why are you so happy?"

"What?"

"Happy. Why're you so happy? You've been smiling ever since we -- since we -- dropped in here."

"Look around you."

"What?"

"Look around you?"

"Okay?"

"What do you see?"

"I see a disgusting swamp."

"And what _don't_ you see?"

"What?"

"What's absent from this otherwise inauspicious scenery?"

"I don't--"

"No Jugo! Nowhere! He's nowhere in sight! He's been obliterated or redirected or lost or _something_, but he's gone and I can have these sweet minutes to myself and enjoy my life's current lack of him."

"Oh."

"So--"

"Yes?"

More vines fell, splattering into the water, revealing a small pool covered in rose petals. Beyond were hedges, rose bushes, statues, and the forbidding face of the castle.

"Ah," Shikamaru said. "Now we're getting somewhere." He paused, looked back at her. "Are you going to answer my question?"

"What question?"

"The one about Naruto. About why you're in love with him."

"I thought-- I thought I answered that question."

"Erm, I don't think you did."

"Oh. Think Naruto's in that castle?"

"God, I hope so. The bigger problem will be figuring out how to get back to Earth."

"I know."

"Think Jugo's dead?"

"What?"

"I don't know. I don't _want_ him dead. Just-- the guy needs to-- I don't know. He needs some comeuppance from the universe. Him dying would just be fitting somehow. You know I walked into his room and caught him kicking puppies? He bought this box of puppies for the express purpose of--"

The rose pools burst, water crashing into the air. Temari cried out, falling back. The water was suddenly deeper now, some force dragging her down beneath it.

Shikamaru was a torpedo, splitting the water with his dive towards her. Even as his hand closed on hers, she wanted to scream _No! No, I'm no one's damsel in distress! Let go of me!_

She didn't scream that, however, because her mind had gone numb with horror. Rising behind Shikamaru was a gigantic snake with four heads. Each head looked exactly like her father's.

Huh, she thought.

ooo

There were creatures hiding in the corner of their sight. That was the worst part, coming to the slow realization that Orochimaru was not actually entirely alone in this place.

One of the walls of the dining hall was a mirror, reflecting the fire, reflecting the long banquet table, reflecting Sasuke and Ino, shrouded in silhouette. Orochimaru cast no reflection.

"_Sit_," Orochimaru growled, standing before the fire.

A great expectancy; Sasuke looked at the mirror, but there was no one but the two of them in that long reflective surface. There was something menacing about this room, the way the shadows warped and moved at the edge of the their vision. The statues here were of a darker mold, hideous Anti-Christs with wolfen features, claws extending from the darkness. No one in the mirror, but Sasuke could _feel_ expectancy. They weren't alone in this room. When he and Ino pulled out chairs and sat, a climactic rush of relief descended on the things lurking out there. Slender hands emerged from the dark mottled rock of the chair and held Sasuke's wrists down. They grabbed his ankles, pinned him to the chair. Sasuke didn't resist; he'd expected this. He heard Ino crying out in surprise, heard her struggling.

"Glad you could make it, guys," Orochimaru said.

He slid towards the table, running a long pale hand along the surface.

"Where are we, exactly?" Ino asked. "An alternate dimension?"

"Good question," Orochimaru said, reaching her. He glanced at the table, plucked out a grape from the spread of food.

"He's a _ghost_," Sasuke snarled. "When really powerful ghosts manifest, they can manipulate their spatial surroundings. So he made himself a world."

Orochimaru turned to look at him.

"So this castle and everything," Ino said, "it's basically entirely him."

Orochimaru looked at her. He smiled. "Not exactly."

He pulled a switch underneath the table, and the chair holding Ino lunged onto its back. A hole opened in the floor and Ino vanished into it from sight.

"_Ino!_" Sasuke shouted. _Now_ he struggled, wrenching against the pale hands holding him down.

The panel in the floor replaced itself and the chair lurched up onto its legs.

"Wonderful," Orochimaru said. "Now we're alone."

The hands holding Sasuke released him. The moment he did he was out, onto his feet, running to the floor, searching it, trying to found the catches of the panel.

"Someone doesn't know what an oubliette is," Orochimaru said, chuckling. "Nothing but death down there, Saskuke."

"Bastard," Sasuke growled. He spun and leapt, landed on the table, grabbed at a knife, went into the air.

"What-"

The knife buried itself in Orochimaru's heart up to the hilt. The man looked down at it, tapped at it. "- do you think you're doing, Sasuke?"

He began to laugh, and laugh heartily, laugh loudly. He pulled the knife out, threw it into the fire, where it hit with a shower of sparks. "What a little foolish _boy_." He grabbed Sasuke by the neck, slammed him against the surface of the table. "Having _fun_ yet, Sasuke?" he growled.

"Why bother with this?" Sasuke said, sweat beading on his forehead. "You're this entire goddamn castle, aren't you? Just bring it down on me and have it over with."

Orochimaru grinned, lips pulling back, showing rows of sharp teeth. "Because I'm _not_ the castle. And the castle wants you, more or less, _functional_."

Above him, the firelight flickered against the ceiling. On it, Sasuke could see a painting of an orgy, a series of twisting limbs, animals, and a knife held high by a man with a deer's skull for a head. _Fertility cult_.

"I'll go fetch Naruto," Orochimaru said, grinning. "You wait here."

He shoved Sasuke _through_ the table, the table molding around Sasuke limbs, grabbing hold. His face stuck out from the dark mottle rock, one arm held fast, the other waving useless in the air, one leg kicking. "Oh god," he said.

"Bee-are-bee," Orochimaru said. He turned, laughing, and disappeared into the shadows.

"Oh god," Sasuke said again.

ooo

This is bad, Naruto thought.

He clung to the ivy on the side of the castle outside his balcony. The snake had tried to bite him on his way over the side, but Naruto was nothing if not quick. But the ivy seemed a living, moving thing under his hand, twisting beneath his fingers. The entire castle seemed to groan, seemed to be coming to life.

When Naruto was fourteen, Mizuki had pursued him across a series of rooftops in lower Manhattan. Naruto had had to clamber up a massive exhaust pipe and make the sixteen foot jump to the next roof. He hadn't -- instead he had crashed into the fire escape and had nearly broken his arm.

The edge of the turret across from his vision wasn't sixteen feet. He eyeballed it, aware that the ivy would soon try to grab hold of him and pin him to the castle. Ten feet, maybe eleven. He kicked off the wall, arched his back.

As he flew over, he wondered what his life would have been like without the lifetime of evading those shadow-things. He wouldn't nearly be athletic, that was for sure. And he probably wouldn't have met Sasuke. It was a trade-off, perhaps.

He'd misjudged his leap. His fingers touched the edges of the turret, but slipped. He fell two feet before he grabbed hold of a windowsill beneath him. Above, a gargoyle, a deer-figure with menacing brow and large antlers, peered at him. Gargoyle, Naruto thought, from the word _gorgon_.

Gorgons, Iruka had once told him, had not always been the snake-haired, iron-clawed Medusas we know and loved. They used to be statues and images and proffered protection to the owner. Which is what gargoyles did, of course.

He heard splashing behind him. He looked across the garden and saw--

Kabuto?

Yes, Kabuto was splashing along the reflecting pool, looking absolutely miserable.

Why would Kabuto be here?

The gargoyle above him began to _move_, shifting its head, reaching down towards Naruto with its claws. Naruto cried out, released his grip.

He began to fall.

ooo

Sasuke heard someone enter the room. He tried to shift, tried to get his one workable hand over to one of the dishes, maybe use it as a weapon. He couldn't reach, the table clutching his forearm. He was barely able to breathe.

"Sasuke," the voice said.

"Oh _shit_," Sasuke said.

The castle seemed to feel the same way. There was a murmuring from the shadows, a general anger in the air. The darkness almost seemed to retreat from the silhouette approaching the table.

"What have you gotten yourself into, Sasuke?" Itachi said, looking down at him.

"Oh _no_," Sasuke said.


	17. Chapter 17

Itachi swept out of the shadows, descending onto Sasuke, who was held fast by the table.

"Goodness, look at you," Itachi said softly. "How unfortunate."

Sasuke began struggling in earnest. "Get away from me."

"Why? Leave you now, when you need my help the most?"

"I don't need your help."

"You want me to leave you here."

"_Yes!_"

Itachi stepped up on the table, kneeled down, as if straddling Sasuke, pressing his face close to his brother's, almost close enough to touch noses.

"I'm serious," Sasuke said. "Keep away from me."

"Sasuke, don't you ever think about what could have been?" Breath like ice. Frost sparkled on Sasuke's cheeks where it touched him.

"No."

The vampire's voice was almost a whisper. "But here you are. Almost gift wrapped for me."

Itachi swept forwards, closing his shadows over Sasuke.

"Stop it," Sasuke said, feeling the effect of Itachi on him. God, he was starting to look like him. They both took after their father.

"There's something to be said for being together, isn't there? The family unit."

"The fuck you care. You killed them all."

"I want to extend the same gift to you."

"They're all dead."

"But you won't be. Not completely."

"Itachi--"

"How does that sound? An eternity together--"

"You can't--"

"Why not?"

"Take me away--"

"What?"

"It'll take me away from--"

"From Naruto."

"Fuck you."

"We can't. We're brothers."

"Go away."

"All I hear is the death cries of your living self, Sasuke."

"Itachi--"

"Quiet. It'll be over soon--"

"No--"

A noise.

Itachi looked up, looked over towards the steps near the fireplace. There was a silhouette standing there, just standing on the steps.

"Hm," the vampire said.

There were beads of dust on the table that held Sasuke. Sasuke watched them float upwards, coming together. There was sand billowing out from the steps, swirling around the figure on the steps.

The sand swept upwards, hurtled across the ceiling and crashed into Itachi.

ooo

It was official: Ino hated oubliettes.

For one, it stunk. The passage had clearly not been cleaned for some time, and it took a long while for the stench of death to leave any sort of pit. It came up towards her where she was held, pressing her feet and hands against the side of the drop, stopping herself from falling. The stench made her gag.

She tried to remember what her parkour instructor had told her: _There are two aspects to effective movement--your level of balance and your level of hesitation. You must only hesitate the split-second it takes to find your balance. Any more and you'll fall. The trick is to be as fluid as water. The human body is not a static entity -- it is a creature always in motion; even as your foot touches ground, you should be already turning, moving towards another place to fall._

God, look at me, she thought; I hate myself. I'm in a haunted castle, stuck in an oubliette, and I'm still emotionally detached. I'm a robot, I'm just a frigging computer. I hate it.

She pushed off her right foot, bounced off her left, shot up the passage and braced herself beneath the opening to the pit. How to get out? She saw the gears, each attached to each other, extending to mechanisms lodged deep within the rock itself. She tried pushing at the gears; they wouldn't budge.

There must be some way to open this from the inside. Anyone building this would need some way to operate it, to maintain it. It had to break down eventually and someone would have to take it apart.

But it was connected to the chair, wasn't it? Orochimaru touched a button and gears connected to the chair had to turn, and _those_ gears would turn the gears beneath this trapdoor. There was no way in hell some girl would have be able to turn these fuckers with her bare hands, no matter how much she worked out in her spare time.

But these were old, weren't they? Hundreds of years, at least. And they couldn't have been made of steel, or any sort of alloy strong enough; not three hundred years ago. They'd need to be made of a delicate metal, something that could be set perfectly into one another. She braced her hands against the side of the walls, strained, and whirled upwards, slamming her feet into the gears.

She almost fell, almost hurled to her death, but she managed to hold tight, even as pain rippled up her legs. Fucking gears. Fucking castle. Fucking oubliette.

No hesitation. She found her balance, pressed hard, then swung up again, slamming both feet against the gears. This time she knocked one loose, heard it skitter against the wall, then crash down in the darkness below.

No connection to a big heavy chair this time. Just a trapdoor and its hinges. She swung up, braced herself with her feet, then pushed upwards. The flagstone moved, barely, but she was strong enough to push it a few inches open.

She saw a storm of sand slap against Itachi, who hid from the violence with his dark cloak. The sand vanished him from sight, and then let him reappear. He whirled upwards and out of Ino's vision.

Oh man. What was going on?

She forced the flagstone up, pulled herself out. She hit the floor, rolled, as the sand came about, crashing into the table. The table exploded, and Sasuke hit the ground, covering his hand from the hailstorm of fragments.

Ino came to a crouch, saw Itachi become a shadow skidding back as the sand crashed down at him again and again. She ran towards Sasuke, snatching up a fallen candlestick as she went.

"_Pathetic,_" she heard Itachi say.

Something was happening. There was fragments of table flying about, tile exploding upwards, sand shooting through the air. She saw _Gaara_, of all people, approaching Itachi. He was not smiling. Instead his eyes were wide. He looked confused.

Itachi, a darkness in the midst of everything, growled. "_Does Orochimaru really think he can beat me with a child playing around with shadow-powers?_"

A chill in the air.

Sasuke came to his feet. "We have to get out of here."

"Y-yeah," Ino said.

Sand was icing over, falling to the ground in shards of frost. It looked like it was snowing around Itachi, who stood up, a boiling miasma of darkness.

Gaara was stumbling back, tripping over himself to get away. A sheen of ice crackled over the floor, flew up the fragments of the table, began to climb up the walls.

Ino shivered violently. She'd never been so cold in her life.

"_Run, Gaara,_" Itachi said. "_If you can._"

Gaara ran. Itachi didn't pursue. Instead he turned, a silhouette of pitch and darkness, two burning red eyes staring in Sasuke's direction. Sasuke froze, staring back.

"_Do you see, Sasuke?_" Itachi said.

"Oh my god," Sasuke said.

There were no windows here to leap through. Ino grabbed Sasuke by the arm, wrenched him towards the nearest exit.

"_Sasuke_," Itachi hissed.

Ino pulled the door open, shoved themselves through and shut the door behind them.

ooo

What _was_ Shikamaru?

No hesitation, only a sort of glee in his eyes, the way he turned, his sword crackling out of existence in the midst of crimson energy. Temari watched him hack off the first head of the beast.

This didn't make sense. Temari shouldn't _be_ here, shouldn't be in the depths of some swamp water, shouldn't be seeing Shikamaru sweep the heads of a monster that seemed specifically designed to unsettle her.

Besides, now she couldn't breathe. The air in her lungs had gone stale a long time ago, and she felt like her lungs were about to split apart. She swam for the surface, kicking out as hard as she could.

_Temari_.

Oh _shit_.

Down below. Beneath her. She could see Kankuro rising up out of the mud, _made_ of mud, this mud-brother reaching up for her, grabbing at her ankles.

Why her? Why was this place specifically trying to scare _her?_ She screamed, she couldn't help it, the bubbles bursting out of her mouth all at once.

Keep control. She pushed out, struggling for the surface. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Shikamaru. Who _was_ he? Why was he handling this so well? There he was, lopping off another head.

ooo

The moment Naruto felt leaves whipping past him, he grabbed hold of the branches. Ah shit, he felt them breaking. Kicking out, he tried to grab hold of thicker bows. One of them slammed into his stomach, knocking all the wind out of him and rendering him limp and useless. He hit a second, rolled along it, managed to grab hold.

Lucky, he thought; no broken ribs. No broken ribs and that's so very lucky.

He lay there against the tree, panting, trying to force himself to work again. He heard fluttering feathers above -- just a bird or someone sent to collect him? He turned, looked down. Only a ten foot drop. He forced himself to a crouch, dropped to the next bow down, then dropped down to the ground.

Well. He was out of the castle, at least.

"Naruto?" he heard Kabuto say.

Looking up, seeing Kabuto run across the reflecting pool and up onto the stone. He looked the incarnation of relief.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto said.

"Here--" Kabuto said, looking around. He looked up at the castle, then back at the reflecting pool. "Where-- where _is_ here?"

"Good question. Not entirely sure. How'd you get here?"

"Not sure of that either. Where-- Have you seen anyone else here? Sasuke-- have you seen Sasuke?"

"_Sasuke?_ You're with Sasuke?"

"Erm, _yeah._ I'm here to-- _rescue_ you. I'm here with Sasuke."

"Where is he?"

"He's -- honestly?" He adjusted his glasses, looked miserable. "I think he's in that castle."

Naruto's spirits sank. He turned back, looked up at the spires. "In _that_ castle?"

"Which castle is it?"

"Orochimaru's castle. You'll never find a more wretched hive of--"

"Listen, we need to get out of here."

"Well, we're not going anywhere if Sasuke's in that castle."

"It's taken care of."

"What?"

"Someone else went in there to fetch him."

"Who?"

"Uh--"

"Who's all here?"

"Well--"

"Well?"

"Everyone, I guess."

"Who's everyone?"

"Iruka, Sasuke, Hinata--"

"_What?_ Where?"

"Sasuke's in that castle."

"Well, then--"

"What are you _wearing_?"

Naruto looked down at the leather. "Good question."

He turned back towards the castle. It stood there, lurching over here, massive, forbidding. Sasuke, in there. Goddammit.

"Naruto!"

At the sound of the voice, he turned, looking back. It was the rose pool just beyond the hedge garden, beyond the statues. He saw Shikamaru and Temari emerging, soaked. Shikamaru ran his hands through his hair, twisting out the water. Temari looked pinched and pale.

"Not you again," Naruto said.

"Hold on!" Shikamaru shouted. "Don't you go anywhere. Don't you _go_ anywhere, goddammit. I've been looking for you to just suddenly run off. You stay _right there_."

"I don't have time for this, Shikamaru."

"_Stay right there, dammit_."

Naruto walked up the steps of the castle, up towards the door. He heard the castle groaning, responding to his presence. You want me, Naruto thought; come and have me. "Open up," he said.

The doors responded instantly, swinging open with a moaning sound, a sound almost sexual in nature. He ran into the castle, and they swung shut behind him.

"I--" Shikamaru said, when he reached the steps. "I really hate that kid sometimes."

"He looked good," Temari said. "At least he's still alive, right?"

Shikamaru looked up at Kabuto. "What the _hell_ are you doing here?"

"Got in through the witch-circle," Kabuto said. "Same as you."

"With the vampire?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I _bet_."

He danced up the steps, went to the door, tried the handles. Locked.

"I'm just glad to get out of that swamp," Temari said.

Shikamaru didn't like this. The castle felt like it was shifting, like it was coming alive. The stone felt cold to the touch, yet he sensed a consciousness, something ancient and lecherous.

His sword exploded into existence in a crackle of red energy. He swung, cut the doors in two. They burst from the impact, wood splinters showering the steps. "That's the way we do it," he said. He kicked in the door, walked in.

Temari felt it instantly. She stumbled back, feeling the swirling presence touch at her thighs, dance along her nipples. _Temari_, it said, in a warm breath of sexuality. "What-?"

"Temari," Shikamaru called from the door. "Let's hurry this up."

What's happening? Temari thought.

ooo

This is fucked, Sasuke thought, following Ino as they ran along the corridors. I can't want to kiss my brother. I just _can't_. Yet there had been a moment back there--

No, he thought. This, this right here.

This if fucked.

All around him he felt the castle come alive. This was bad, he thought.


	18. Chapter 18

Of the current four members of Atkatsuki, only Shikamaru and Jugo had been the closest to seeing their employer's face. It had come several months before, when they had travelled to Tokyo to rescue her from an underworld cartel. They had been standing together at the top floor of a tower. It was night and beyond the windows the city glowed with neon, a sea of colourful spires. On an LCD billboard, flashing green and pink, the giant face of an idol urged passerbys to drink Green Tea Ginger Ale. From this light a sheen of green outlined the silhouette of their employer, who stood in front of the windows, casually smoking a cigarette.

Littered around Shikamaru and Jugo's feet were the limp and unconscious bodies of ninja assassins, dressed in the traditional black garb. Shurikens and ninja blades stuck out of the carpet, out of the walls, out of the desk.

"Good stuff, gentlemen," their employer had said. She had tossed her hair and Shikamaru noted it was blonde. Otherwise he couldn't see her face.

He knew that he was somewhat in love with her. Not any sort of romantic love -- his boss was not in anyway obtainable -- but rather he loved her for the opportunities she gave him, the fact that Atkatsuki brought his life meaning.

_"You ready?"_

_Shikamaru looked up over the highschool cafeteria table, saw Ino toss her pretty blonde hair, watched her smile at him. "Ready for what?"_

_"The dance tonight."_

_He looked down, down at the articles in the newspaper. Here an article about a school attacked in Lesovo, children cut down with machetes and AK-47s. Here a story about the ecological damages in South America. "Yeah," he said. "Sure."_

_He lived such a privileged life. It made him sick._

Orochimaru's castle door exploded from the impact of his sword slicing into it. The force shuddering up Shikamaru's arm made him smile. Here he was, doing _something_.

Kabuto's voice was shaky: "You guys-- you're going in there? You're going _into_ the castle?"

"Course we are," Temari said, going up the stairs. "Naruto's in there."

_"You tried to kill yourself once?"_

_Shikamaru looked up at the television screen. The leader of Atkatsuki stared back at him, her face swathed in shadow, looking back at him. Shikamaru, fresh from his deserting the military. Shikamaru, who lied about his age to get in. He glanced down at his wrists, at the scars trailing down his skin. How odd, he thought; I knew _how_ to do it, but yet I didn't do it properly. Just a little bit lower and--_

_"Why?"_

_He looked up at her. "What?"_

_"Why did you try to kill yourself?"_

_"I just-- At the time--" He looked away, ashamed of himself. "At the time I couldn't live in a world where I knew I had so much and others had so little."_

_All he could see was her smile. "I'm glad you came to us then."_

Into the castle. The shadows closed over their heads and Shikamaru closed his eyes, letting one open slowly, then letting the other, adjusting himself to the change in light. No sign of Naruto, not in this massive hall, not up the stairs, nor down any of the dark corridors.

"Where to?" Temari asked.

"He couldn't have gone far. Couldn't have gone up those stairs-- we'd have seen him by the time we got in. So he's down one of these corridors."

They spread out. Shikamaru glided forward along the tiles, stepping lightly. He didn't know what to expect from a haunted castle, but he held his sword behind him, rather to take out any animate suits of armour or anything this place threw at him.

"--Gaara?" he heard Temari say.

Shikamaru looked back, saw Temari framed by the light from outside, saw her stare in shock down one of the corridors. "What?"

"I saw Gaara."

"Who?"

"My brother."

"The one you think Sasuke killed?"

"Yeah."

"You saw the brief sight of a dead relative in a haunted castle? Um, _trap?_"

And _goddammit_, was he pissed when he saw her run off down the corridor. He called her name, running after her. He slid into the corridor, watched the stone wall come down, blocking him from Temari. "Oh for the love of god."

He stood there for a moment, staring at the wall, then turned back and looked at Kabuto. "Okay, if _you_ let yourself get split up from the group by this castle, I'll hunt you down and slit your throat, got me?"

Kabuto stared at him blandly for a moment. "Oh," he said, "you don't have to worry about me."

ooo

A plan was formulating in Naruto's head. He ran down the corridor, passing tapestries and candlesticks, passing boudoirs and armouries. Skidding into the dining hall, he surveyed the wreckage of the table. _Sasuke._

He kicked open one of the doors, went heading down the stairs there, and into the library. There was a statue here, made from gold, perched above the reading table in the center, a Cthulian monster. Look at all those tentacles, Naruto thought as he walked towards it. And all around him shelves of books, and above a round skylight, letting in the yellow light from the sunset.

There was a long telescope in one corner, and a massive compass near the other. The needle seemed to be plated with gems. Naruto reached for it, touched it, wondered how old it was.

It snapped off in his hand. Huh.

He went up the stairs towards the upper floor of the library. "Orochimaru!"

He had a plan. He just didn't know if he could pull it off. "Orochimaru!"

And then there he was. Orochimaru sat up the upper floor of the library, sitting back in an easy chair, reading a book. As Naruto stepped onto the floor, Orochimaru glanced up and smiled. "There you are. I was looking for you. You were expected for dinner, remember?"

"Where's Sasuke?"

"He's out and about somewhere." Orochimaru glanced back down at his book, flipped a page across. "There's a vampire loose in the castle, you know."

"Itachi? _Here?_"

"Is that his name?" Orochimaru set the book aside on the little reading table next to his chair and leaned back. "Now that I've found _you_, I think we should set about looking for Sasuke."

"First tell me why."

"What?"

"Why do you want Sasuke so badly?"

"_Me?_" The grin spread across his face, a snake-grin, a pumpkin-grin. "I just think he'd make for some interesting conversation. The _castle_, however, oh, it wants him. It wants him _badly._"

"Why?"

"It doesn't explain its proclivities to me. I just live here."

A hissing noise. Naruto glanced back, saw two massive boas slithering along the floor towards him. They were long, sleek, their scales shimmering in the light of the sunset.

"The castles wants _both_ of you," Orochimaru said. "The raven-- _and_ the fox."

"If I don't resist," Naruto said, keeping his eyes on the snakes, "I can see Sasuke? And you won't hurt him?"

"I've never wanted to-- _hurt_ Sasuke, lover. Just wanted to have a nice _chat_ with him. But the castle has its own plans. It once belonged to a pagan fertility cult, you know."

"Really?"

The boas began to slide up his thighs, caressing his waist, wrapping themselves around his arms. Their weight pulled him to his knees. They were heavy, very heavy.

"They trapped a cthonic beast once," Orochimaru said. "Under the castle. A pretty exotic thing for a sex cult to do, don't you think? But they thought that if they held the monster, it'd give them power."

"Did it?"

"Well, it drove them insane and took over the castle. Sounds like a good time to me."

"And now you want to release it?"

"Oh, I just live here remember? Thing is-- the way to release it in a fertility rite devoted to earth beasts like the one under this castle. And you know how fertility rites are. Lots of-- painting oneself with menstrual blood, weird stuff like that."

"I don't, uh-- I don't menstruate."

"No, but you do _fuck_, don't you?"

"What?"

"See, the rite in question requires the copulation of two demon entities." He pursed his lips, glanced down at his book. "Demons are hard to come by sometimes. Except when they're trapped in the bodies of young men."

Naruto couldn't believe his ears. "Sasuke is--"

"And so are you."

"And you want us to release this monster into the world?"

"Me? No, I just live here." He leaned back in the easy chair, smiled, watched as the snakes pressed their weight against Naruto further, pinning him to the ground. "The _castle_, however-- yeah, I guess you can say it wants to release that thing into the world."

Naruto glanced down a the lower floor of the library, saw the gold statue of the monster below, saw all those tentacles. Oh no, he thought.

Sasuke--

Why didn't you tell me--?

ooo

There was a ceremonial axe nailed to the wall. Ino figured it was better than nothing. She grabbed at it, tore it loose from the mount, hefted it. The weight was off. Ceremonial piece of shit. Still, it'd do. She swung it about, looked up at Sasuke, who stood staring into the shadows of another corridor. "Now what?"

"Now we look for Naruto," Sasuke said. "And I kill Orochimaru with my bare hands."

"Isn't he supposed to be a ghost?"

"Doesn't mean I can't try."

"You know, I'm jealous."

Sasuke looked back at her. She stepped back him, glanced down the corridor, saw the wind tossing up the curtains from the windows along the wall. "I had a bit of a crush of Naruto myself," she said. "He's good-natured, isn't he?"

"He is."

"Wish I had someone willing to take on a ghost for me."

"Why do you take so many martial art classes anyways?"

She looked back at him.

He stared at her. She hadn't realized how intensely he was staring at things until he directed his gaze onto her. "You don't have anyone you _have_ to fight," he said. "So why?"

She looked away, shrugged. "I don't know." She hefted the axe again, liking how it fit in her hand. "Maybe I want to have someone to fight."

She took a step down the corridor. The hand burst from the side of the wall, clawed at her. She cried out, skidding to the side, swinging the axe, but the hand had already vanished back into the stone.

"Good lord!" she said, backing up towards the window. "Did you see that?"

Sasuke stepped back, went into a fighting stance. "Yeah."

It burst out from the floor, a hideous puppet on strings, slicing at Sasuke with scythe-hands. The knives cut the air and he gritted his teeth, sliding back, dodging and weaving. The thing was faceless, a mannequin-thing.

"Sasuke!" Ino shouted. She stepped forward and _three_ of the puppet-things exploded out of the floor at her. One of them came at her with scissor-fingers, the blades coiling out. She parried it with the axe, ducked and swung.

Cermonial piece of crap. It buried itself into the puppet's body and got stuck. She tugged at it twice, but gave up as the puppets lunged at her. She leapt back, dodging and ducking. Out of the corner of her eye she saw four of them emerge from the wall, going for Sasuke. She cried out his name. "Behind you!"

Sasuke grabbed the wrists of the scythe-hand puppet and wrenched the blades into the body of a puppet behind him. He ducked, letting the sword of another puppet slice overhead. He jumped, burying both feet into the puppet's body, went vertical and came down, kicking into the head of another.

No good. These weren't humans. They felt no pain. They had no solar plexuses to drive one's knee into, no pain receptors to exploit, no muscles to kill. He landed, dodged a swipe from another blade.

"Ino!" he shouted. "We have to run!"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement. He blocked a swing with his forearm, twisted, buried his elbow into the torso of a puppet, knocking it back. He spun and saw--

Deidara--?

Deidara stood in the doorframe of a corridor, staring blankly ahead. His eyes-- they had no pupils.

Oh no.

"Ino--" Sasuke snapped. "We're getting out of here!"

He jumped, kicked off the face of a puppet and leapt for the corridor with Ino as the first of the clay bombs struck the floor. He made it into the corridor when the explosions went off. He and Ino went flying, a ball of fire throwing them out of the corridor and down a flight of stairs. They twisted, gaining control of their bodies, touched off the steps, landed on their feet at the bottom of the landing.

"Puppets--" Ino breathed. "Goddamn _puppets._"

"They're not trying to kill us," Sasuke said, looking back up the stairs.

"They were trying to knife _me_."

"When they were fighting me, they were trying to incapacitate me, not kill me. Trying to slice my hamstrings, that sort of thing."

"_You_, maybe."

At the top of the stairs Deidara and Sasori appeared, staring down at them with blank eyes.

"They've been zombified," Sasuke said.

Sasori raised his right hand, flexed his fingers.

Three puppets exploded up from the stairs, fluttering towards Sasuke in loose frayed robes, slicing down with short knives. Sasuke grabbed the first one, hurled it off the steps, as Ino darted forward, slamming her foot into the stomach of the next. The third puppet shot up, sliced at Sasuke, grazed his shoulder, a stream of blood flying up into the dark air.

Sasuke grabbed Ino and leapt off the landing, falling down into the hall. The puppets followed.

ooo

"This is not my best day ever," Shikamaru said.

He stared at the painting on the wall, admired the painter's tones and colours, but wondered why an 18th century artist would depict a city getting destroyed by a crustacean of Cthulian proportions. "See, this is _exactly_ why I don't like this gothic stuff," he said. He tapped the painting. "Some lonely Byronic vampire in his castle terrorizing a young blonde Petrarchan heroine is all well and good, but _this_ crap, this end-of-the-world crap-- that's where I start to get uncomfortable."

Kabuto stood in the drawing room behind him, the light shining through the windows and reflecting off his glasses. He held a sharp scalpel behind him. Itachi's orders were very clear -- let _him_ find Sasuke, and let Kabuto murder any of Sasuke's friends that came looking for Naruto. "Yeah," he said. "That _is_ an odd painting."

"Otherwise, this room is rather comfortable," Shikamaru said. "Nice easy chairs, a fireplace, and pot for warming up water, some books. Must get dusty, though, especially with a carpet. Can you imagine what it must cost to carpet a castle?"

"Quite a bit, I would imagine," Kabuto said.

"I don't like the layout of this castle. A home should be easy to get around. I should be able to walk into a place and be able to navigate my way to the kitchen, no problem."

"Yeah."

Shikamaru glanced up. "You don't talk much, do you?"

"I do. Sometimes."

"I mean-- do you ever, like, banter about?"

"What?"

"Banter. Like, trade lines, back and forth. You know. A good conversation. A _dialogue_."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Never mind then."

Kabuto stepped behind him, and increased his grip on the scalpel.

"I like the colour choices, though," Shikamaru said. "They're very muted. _Temari!_ Can you hear me?"

"Maybe she's farther into the castle."

"Goddamn that woman. Atkatsuki is dropping like flies, apparently."

"You're so right."

Kabuto struck.

ooo

_No, Sasuke, _the voice said. _You're mine_.

As the sand crashed down across the floor of the hall, bowling over the puppets and knocking Ino off her feet, leaving Sasuke in the eye of a tornado, Sasuke reflected that maybe it was time to cut down on the number of enemies he had.

Gaara stood in the center of the sand whorl, staring at him with glee in his hateful eyes.

"Where'd you learn how to do this?" Sasuke said. "I don't recall the highschool giving classes in powers like these."

"There's a lot you can learn from the spirit-world," Gaara said.

"Yeah, I bet."

"This is where you die."

"No."

The sand whipped upwards, struck the ceiling, and shot down at him, becoming a spear of glass.

That's where you're wrong, Sasuke thought; I can't die here. That's not what I've trained my whole life for.

He touched off the ground, leaping past the glass spear. He touched it briefly, as it exploded into the ground behind him, and shot forwards, driving his foot into Gaara's nose, crushing it under the sole of his foot, slamming the boy back into the ground.

The spear broke and pieces of glass flung into the air around Sasuke as he and Gaara landed, the latter rolling across the floor limply, trailing blood and mucus.

"Gaara," Sasuke said softly. "Where's Naruto?"

Gaara lay there, flakes of sand falling around him. He began to stir, making a noise and coming up to his elbow. "Urg..." he said. "Screw you--"

A voice: "Gaara?"

Gaara's head snapped up. He looked across the hall to the entrance of a corridor. A torch flickered above it, and in the orange light, he could see Temari standing there, eyes wide, staring at him.

"Oh geez," Gaara said, getting to his knees.

"Gaara!" Temari said, running across the hall towards him. "You're alive!"

"_Get away from me!_" Gaara shrieked.

The sand shot up from the floor, coiled about and slammed into Temari, throwing her back.

"Always--" Gaara muttered, getting to his feet. "-- always telling me what to do."

"Gaara-" Sasuke snarled.

"_Yeah_," Gaara said.

The sand crashed into Sasuke, crushing him against the floor, flying into him, crawling up his skin and obscuring his vision.

There were candlestick holders lodged into the wall along the north tapestry. Ino snatched one off the wall, ran towards Gaara and leapt into the air, swinging the candlestick holder towards his head.

"_Hate!_" Gaara shouted, swinging about and crashing the sand into Ino, flinging her back.

"Gaara--" Temari said, staggering to her feet. "Gaara, stop--"

"_Don't tell me what to do!_" Gaara shouted, sending sand at her.

She leapt to the side, rolling, the sand exploding against the floor.

"_You're all dead_," Gaara said.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke saw Deidara working creating another clay bomb. Ino shouted Sasuke's name, threw him the candlestick holder. He caught it, swung it at Gaara, but another wave of sand struck him, knocking the wind from his lungs, throwing him against the ground.

"_Dead_," Gaara said.

Sasuke could see him, in bits and pieces, through the sand maelstrom, saw his hateful eyes.

Movement. Deidara threw the clay bomb. It shaped, became a bird. It soared down on clay wings towards Sasuke. Sasuke launched off the ground into the air, caught the bird, and hurled it at Gaara.

Gaara's eyes went wide. He coiled the sand around him--

-- and vanished in an explosion that sent Sasuke and Ino flying back into the wall.

ooo

The scalpel shimmered in the light coming through the windows. Kabuto's fist shook, clenching the knife. Sweat beaded on his forehead and he opened his mouth to gasp. Shikamaru was hurting his wrist.

The man held Kabuto's wrist and the scalpel inches away from his back. He had caught the wrist without looking. Shikamaru didn't look at him. He just sighed and said, "I'm _really_ getting tired of this."

"You're hurting me," Kabuto said.

Shikamaru squeezed and Kabuto cried out, dropping the scalpel. He turned, faced Kabuto, looked him straight in the eye. "What do I have to do? I mean, _really_. What _do_ I have to do? Should I just print up my CV, have it tacked to my clothing? Should I _wear_ a karate gi and a black belt at all times just so people know? I work _so_ hard for _so_ long and everyone around me _still_ thinks they can get the drop on me. I mean look at you. You were totally confident you could bury this thing into my back. Didn't even -- you didn't even _consider_ the possibility of failure, did you? No, you just thought _here's a guy, I'll stick a knife into him_. I'm really getting sick of it."

Kabuto's mouth opened. He closed it. Opened it again. "Are you going to kill me now?"

"If I kill you you won't learn from your mistakes, will you?"

They heard the explosion several rooms away. Shikamaru glanced in its direction. "Huh," he said.

ooo

_Death._

Death was not an option. Sasuke felt the rough stone against his palms, felt his own breath suck in, wrench out. His chest hurt. Sweat dripped from his forehead down onto the ground. No, he thought; not an option.

_That's what they don't get, do they, Naruto? They don't get that we have so much ahead of us -- and to die here -- that's just-- that's just unacceptable. There are still things we haven't done. What do they care? There was sunlight ahead of us, the way the light plays through your hair. There was seeing you on the edge of a green field, looking back at me, smiling. There was highschool, university, our whole lives. We were supposed to fight. We haven't fought yet -- not _really. _We haven't had any petty differences, any screaming matches, any dark days spent pretending to hate each other. _

"Sasuke--"

Gaara was laughing. The smoke was curling out along the floor around the boy, his shield of sand disintegrating rapidly around him. "Sasuke," he said. "You suck."

Sasuke said nothing. He got to his feet, stood in front of the boy, fists clenched. There was nothing _to_ say: death just wasn't an option.

_And there's you to think about, Naruto. The way the light streams through my bedroom windows and glances off your skin. The way you smile at me in the throes of it. The way you feel when you lie with your stomach against the bed gasping, my hips touching yours.The way you feel in my mouth. There's the very _majesty_ you've swung into my life, you Narutard, you. You silly fuck. You beautiful, silly fuck. I'm not going to let these psychopaths destroy that. I'll let them destroy the world before letting them destroy us._

Gaara shifted to the side and ran along the ground at Sasuke, forming glass knives out of the sand, the blades sharp and brutal.

Sasuke closed his eyes.

_Naruto--_

He turned and spun, Gaara's knives slicing overhead. He went into the air, lancing out kicks into Gaara's throat and shoulder. He twisted, coming back around, saw Gaara at the side, falling back, blood shooting up in a gush. He landed, ducked, and got Gaara three times in the muscle between his shoulder and his right arm, killing the muscle at the source. Gaara made a horrible gurgling nose and felt to his knees, clutching his shoulder.

"_Sasuke--_" he snarled.

"Fuck you, Gaara," Sasuke said softly.

Behind him, Ino snatched up the long candlestick holder. She turned, brandishing it and screamed Deidara's name. The Zombie-Deidara looked at her and hurled another clay-bird, the beautiful thing unfolding its wings outwards along the dusty air. She baseball-batted it back at the two of them and they vanished in a swath of fire and noise.

Beneath the roar of the explosion, Sasuke heard Temari shout for Gaara.

But Gaara was chuckling, looking up at Temari with utter hate in his eyes. He seemed to be falling _apart_ into sand, disappearing down into the floor as if he was sifting through the flagstone. Soon all that was left of him was a sheen of dust.

"Gaara-!" Temari said, falling to her knees on the flagstone, touching it. "Gaara-!"

ooo

_Sasuke--_

Naruto lay back against the stone, feeling the wind against his hair, feeling the soft scales of the boa constrictors as they pinned him to the floor. The tower room, the highest floor in the castle. The bell tower. The bell was massive, a monstrosity of iron, and Orochimaru stood beneath it, staring out over his forest.

_Sasuke, l hope your safe. I have a plan, but--_

_I need you to be safe._

In his hand, hidden from the boas, hidden from Orochimaru, was the sharp needle he'd snapped off the compass in the library. He felt it in his hand. All he had to do was wait.

"Tell me, Naruto," Orochimaru said. "Do you like the Ramones?"

And all around them, they could feel the dark powers of the castle approaching.


	19. Chapter 19

She was seated at the base of a large oak tree, hands clasped in her land. Her eyes were closed and she was muttering. There was a ring of rocks around her, each one set with a precise hand.

Sai stand down in front of her, looked up at the top of the trees, then back at her. He leaned forwards, glanced away towards Kakashi, then back towards her. He said, quietly, "Hinata?"

Her eyes stayed closed. She didn't even stop muttering.

"No use," Sakura said, leaning against a nearby tree. "She's not waking up."

"She's not asleep," Kakashi said. He put his hands into the pockets of his tweed coat. He stepped along the roots of the oak tree, his single eye resting on Hinata's dark eyes. "In a trance."

"Which is bad," Sakura said. "Right? We need her to get out."

"Yeah," Kakashi said.

He leaned against the oak, watching Hinata. He looked over at Sai, then at Sakura, then, very slowly and deliberately, shrugged.

ooo

"Gaara!"

Smoke billowed outwards into the room and through the dark clouds came Temari, running to the spot on the floor where Gaara had vanished. She fell to her knees, staring at the stone. She touched it, pressed inwards. "What--" she said, her hair falling forwards, stuck with sand. "What the _shit_?"

"Temari--" Ino said, staring at her. A thought: "You _are_ Temari, right? Not some illusion?"

"What're you doing here?" Sasuke said. "What's she-- what are you _doing_ here?"

"_Shut up_, Sasuke," Temari hissed, looking up at him. "My brother's _dead_ because of you."

"How'd you get here?" Ino asked.

She had to lean against the wall, her chest hurt from the running. Sweat beaded on her brow and she could taste the grit of sand in her mouth. This wasn't her best day ever. "Temari," she said. "How'd you _get_ here?"

"Through that--" Temari said, pointing idly in a direction. "Through that circle. _Fuck_ you, Sasuke. You _killed_ my brother!"

Sasuke wasn't listening to her. He went to the nearest door. It hung nearly off its hinges, sand fallen around its frame. He pushed it farther open, peered down the corridor. Down here, maybe? Years of avoiding Orochimaru, now he was trying to find the fucker. Sometimes life didn't make sense.

"Through the witch-circle?" Ino said. "You were _following _us? Why were you following us?"

Temari fell back into a sitting position, pulled her knees up to her chest, stared ahead. "Shikamaru--"

"_Shikamaru?_"

"Wanted to get Sasuke back."

"What?"

"Sasuke. Killed my brother."

"Well, obviously not."

"I know. Saw him here."

"With-- with _sand_. I always said your brother was the weirdest frigging kid. Hell, _you_ said he was the weirdest frigging kid!" She paused, stared at Temari. "_Shikamaru's_ here?"

The door nearest to them opened, and Shikamaru appeared. He walked in, feet leaving footprints in the slight surface of sand scattered over the floor. Viewing the room, he was quick and practical, his gaze resting on Sasuke first, on Temari, then on Ino. Seeing Ino, his gaze faltered a bit. "Er..." he said. "So no Naruto here, Temari?"

"Oh, yeah," Sasuke said, quietly, turning around to look at him. "You're after Naruto, aren't you?"

They met each other's gaze. The two young men stood on opposite sides of the room, staring each other down. Shikamaru's smile began on one side of his mouth, soon spread to the rest of him. "You're so _pale_, Sasuke."

"News flash for you, Shikamaru," Ino said.

"Whuh-?" Shikamaru turned to look at her.

"You ain't getting _shit_.."

"Sorry?"

"Naruto. You and your little friends? Their plan to steal Naruto? Not going to happen."

Shikamaru stared at her. He smiled, looked down at the floor. "Uh huh."

"What's it gonna be, Shikamaru?" Ino asked. "We're going to have to fight about this? Am I going to have to split my knuckles on your face to get your thick skull to understand what I'm saying?"

"Can we not do this?"

"What?"

"Can we not do this. I don't want to have to fight you. I'm just here for Naruto. I'll push Sasuke down, go up, rescue Naruto, get Temari and the rest of my little team, and get out of dodge. That okay for you?"

"_Excuse_ me?"

"Was there something about what I said that was hard to understand?"

"Don't talk to me like that, Shikamaru."

"Why not? Why can't I talk to you like that? Why can't I talk to you any way I like?"

"Because I'm not going to put up with it."

"You don't _have_ to put up with it. We don't even need to talk. I can just go get Naruto and be on my merry way."

"You're not taking Naruto."

"Yeah-huh."

"Excuse me?" Sasuke said. "Can I-- can I get a word in here? We're talking about my boyfriend here, remember?"

"Listen, Ino," Shikamaru said. "I'm not going to be taking guff from a girl who didn't even like the _Clash._"

Ino blinked. "Oh, are we bringing up our behaviour back when we dated? Is that the direction this conversation is going?"

"What's your _point_, Ino?"

"I _loved_ you, you _fucker_."

"Oh, did you? Yeah, I'm sure. You loved me? You sure really showed it really well."

"What are you talking about? We were talking about getting married. You _left_. You let me-- you let me think you were _dead_."

"There were some things _more important_, Ino."

"What, like kidnapping Naruto?"

"_Yeah_."

"Can we discuss this whole kidnapping-Naruto thing?" Sasuke asked.

"You listen here, Shikamaru," Ino said. "You _broke my heart_. You left me without telling me where you were going. I had to find out _from your parents_ that you were still alive. That's _fucked_."

"There were some things _more_ important than our _silly little relationship_, Ino."

"Oh, silly, was it? Our relationship was silly?"

"Ofcourse it was! We were fucking around in our silly fucking little privileged lives while _so_ many people in the world went unprivileged. You expected me to sit around for that?"

"I expected you not to leave me without telling me why."

"You wouldn't have understood."

"What?"

"You wouldn't have understood."

"Yeah, I heard you the first time. I'm just wondering what fucking dimension you live on where you can say something like that."

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"_Excuse me?_"

"And how can you _not_ like the Clash? They revolutionized punk."

"_You_ didn't like the Cure."

"Oh, yeah, because prancing little post-punk imps in black are really _more_ inspired than a band who spearheaded a movement that counts."

"Shikamaru, you used to listen to the same fucking Bob Dylan song on repeat for an _hour_."

"I _never_ did."

"And you come here and expect me to swallow some bullshit about how kidnapping Naruto is going to help-- what? Is it going to _change the world?_"

"Yeah. It is."

"Shikamaru," Sasuke said. "You're not taking Naruto."

"Yeah," Temari said, standing up. "We are."

"You asshole," Ino said, staring at Shikamaru. "I was in love with you."

"I was in love with you too."

"Yeah, _right_."

"Don't _ever_ call me a liar about something like that!"

Ino punched him in the chin. Shikamaru skidded back, looked up.

The room exploded into action. Sasuke flew at Shikamaru, launching kicks upwards. No good, Shikamaru knocked them aside, slammed Sasuke into the ground, came up and parried Ino's vicious swipes. Shikamaru fell back, Ino coming at him like a banshee, going into the air, spinning at him, snarling. He fell back, eyes wide, trying to block the attacks.

"You just don't feel anything, do you?" she snapped. "You're like a _robot_--"

"You're out of your mind," Shikamaru replied, dodging backwards. "You never cared about anything important in your life. People were dying in Ethiopia and--"

She snapped a kick towards his legs. "I'm was in _tenth grade_, you asshole!"

He leapt over her swipes, landed. Sasuke came at him, and Temari went for Ino. Shikamaru got Sasuke in the stomach, spun, blocked a punch from Ino, turned, threw Sasuke into the ground. Ino kicked Temari into a wall, leapt forwards, spun, knocked Shikamaru back through a door, down a corridor.

"Tenth grade?" he shouted, backing up. "So _what?_"

She kicked along the corridor's narrow walls, kicked at him three times, landed, spun, got him on the shoulder, throwing him into the wall. He hit a painting, knocked it off its stand. As it crashed, he went into the air, twisted, slammed her in the chest, throwing her back.

Sasuke slid in, came up, four expertly placed punches going for Shikamaru's throat. Shikamaru dodged the first two and crashed his own fists into Sasuke's. Sasuke cried out, Shikamaru turned and Sasuke flew into a small dresser painfully.

Temari came for Ino, got knocked into a small side table for a trouble. Ino went for Shikamaru's kidneys-- Shikamaru ducked the blows, took one of them on his forearm, slammed his palm against her shoulder. She gritted, elbowed him in the face.

They leapt for each other, launched kicks, and cannoned off each other, each one crashing along the ground.

Sasuke was in pain. He tried to roll onto his side, managed to get to one knee.

Ahead of him, in the next room, he saw the silhouette of Orochimaru standing in the doorframe, beckoning to him.

"Goddammit," Sasuke snarled. He forced himself to his feet, forced himself to run forwards into the next room. The door behind him swung _shut_, cutting him off from the others. "Naruto," he said. "Where is he?"

The room was a small study. Orochimaru leaned against the wall, smiling at him. "Woman, you want me," he said. "Give me a sign."

"Tell me where he is," Sasuke said, standing up straight, leaning against a desk for support. "I'll even go with you. Willingly. Just take me to him."

"And catch my breathing," Orochimaru replied, "even closer behind."

Sasuke breathed heavily. The fight with the puppets and Gaara had taken more out of him than he'd thought. He'd never fought that many people at once before. Sweat dripped down his nose and down onto the carpet.

"In touch with the ground," Orochimaru said, "I'm on the hunt; I'm after you."

"I hate that song."

Suddenly Orochimaru was beside him, speaking into his ear, "Smell like I sound, I'm lost in a crowd." He grinned. "And I'm hungry like the wolf."

Sasuke didn't even realize it was coming until it was upon him. It wasn't even Orochimaru that was doing it; the ghost couldn't do possessions. It was the _castle_ itself. The castle was alive and now its influence was bearing down on him, dragging him down to his knees, trying to possess his body, control him. It wasn't taking any chances. It needed him to be completely under its control.

Fight it, he thought; goddammit, I have to _fight it_--

"Sasuke," Orochimaru said. "Are we going to be obedient from now on?"

Sasuke opened his eyes and spoke in a blank voice: "Yes."

Orochimaru grinned. "Ah, _good_."

ooo

Up onto the tower. From where he lay, from where the wind buffeted him, Naruto looked up, struggling against the boa constrictors to get a better look. Orochimaru was coming up from the stairs, leading a young man up with him.

Sasuke, Naruto thought; oh god. At least he's safe.

There were others slowly gathering on the tower underneath the bell: vaguely man-shaped creatures in tattered robes, fading in from nothingness. Some wore the skulls of deer-heads, others hid their faces with long ripped hoods, others wore masks lined with wolf-fur. Cultists. Druids. Ghosts. Whatever they were, they stood at the edges of the tower watching expectantly.

From Orochimaru's hair, a cobra appeared, slithered down the tall pale body, then across the floor towards Naruto.

"Sasuke," Naruto said.

But Sasuke only stared blankly at him.

"Here we go," Orochimaru said.

The wind was getting more and more violent. Naruto didn't know whether to struggle harder or not, whether or not to reveal the sharp compass needle in his hand, whether Sasuke was okay or not. The cobra moved along his chest, feeling soft and cold against his skin.

He didn't even see the cobra move: the snake was much too fast, and Naruto gasped, arching his back upwards at the pain of the snake's fangs.

His blood curled down his skin, touched the floor. The druid-wraiths stopped writhing, they paused to watch the blood stream along the floor, and around grooves in the stone, making a circle around the boy.

As his blood trails slid to meet each other, seeking to make a perfect circle, the boa constrictors left Naruto, moving quickly along the stone to leave the area before the circle was complete. As the edges of their tails made it through, the blood touched, and Naruto found himself in a blood-circle.

"Orochimaru," he said, standing up.

"You'll like this part, Naruto, I promise," Orochimaru said.

Sasuke stepped forwards, into the circle, staring blankly ahead. Naruto didn't know whether to back away from him or not. The wind struck the young man, tousling his dark hair around his pale face. God, Naruto thought; that perfect, pale face.

"Don't worry, Naruto," Orochimaru said. "I gave him his instructions."

"Sasuke--" Naruto said.

But suddenly Naruto found Sasuke's tongue inside his mouth and he couldn't quite speak as well.

Clutching his lover to him, he looked up towards the bell, towards the sky, as Sasuke trailed kissed along his neck. "No, no, no, no--" he said.

Around him torches burst into life, casting flickering orange light. The sky-- something was happening to the sky.

It was true then. The castle and this _whole world_ was an entity unto itself, separate from Orochimaru. As Naruto watched, the sun went down and night closed in, as well as a rising moon that seemed bloated, a huge throbbing godling of a moon. A representation of the dark creature they were supposed to unleash.

"Sasuke--" Naruto said.

Sasuke kissed him again, and felt for the clasps of Naruto's shorts.

ooo

"Something's happening."

Shikamaru got to his feet, wiped the blood away from his lips. He went to the window, looked out, watched the sky do the impossible. "This is bad," he said.

"Where--" Ino said. She was lying on her back.

Temari tried to get to her feet. She could feel it around her -- the castle coming alive, responding to the sexual excitement coming from above. She felt her nipples harden. She bit her lower lip, trying to control it. _Shit_, she thought.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Ino said.

"Here and there," Shikamaru said.

He looked up, saw the wraiths floating overhead, flitting up towards the top of the castle. "I think you hit me in the throat pretty bad."

"You don't sound hurt."

"That's because I'm awesome. We better get upstairs. Like _now_."

ooo

"Sasuke--"

Naruto bit his lower lip. He tried to push Sasuke away, but it was getting harder. The castle was having an effect on him -- there was something in the air. An atmospheric aphrodisiac perhaps?

Sasuke stroked Naruto's thighs, pulled his shorts down. Naruto gasped as Sasuke took him into his mouth. Torchlight flickered off the skulls of the cultists watching.

_Sunlight streamed in through the windows, glancing off Sasuke's naked shoulders. They lay on his bed, and Naruto watched him twirl the sheets with his finger. "What do you like about sex?" he asked._

_"What?" Sasuke smiled. "Like in general?"_

_"No, I mean." Naruto blushed. "I mean -- with me."_

"Sasuke," Naruto said, pushing Sasuke away from him. "We can't. Not now. Snap out of it."

Sasuke looked up at him and the slightest smirk started at the side of his mouth. He winked. Naruto's mouth opened.

"Sasuke--"

Sasuke didn't glance away. In a blank, pale voice, he said, "Yes, master."

Orochimaru stood in the darkness, the torchlight barely flickering along the edge of his skin, casting his expression into shadow. "Move it along."

Sasuke fiddled with his own shirt, pulled it off over his head. Naruto reached forward, grabbed him before he could get the shirt over his head. Pinning his arms and the shirt above their heads, Naruto kissed him warmly, then whispered into his ear, "What's the plan?"

"Figuring it out," Sasuke said.

He yanked the shirt off, dropped it, fiddled with his pants, knelt down and--

"Oh, god, Sasuke," Naruto said.

Even now, even at the top of the tower, Sasuke was skilled with his mouth.

_"Your facial expressions, I think," Sasuke said._

_Naruto rolled over, stared at the ceiling. "My what?"_

_"Your facial expressions. The way they-- I don't know. They're adorable. And kind of-- I guess you could say sexy. Your eyes get kind of-- half-closed and your mouth opens in this kind of -- 'O' shape."_

_"No I don't!" Naruto rolled over, grabbed a pillow._

_Sasuke's hand snapped out, caught Naruto's wrist. "Yeah, you do. It's cute."_

_"Liar."_

_"Maybe we should test this out."_

"Lubricant," Orochimaru said, turning around. "That's what I forgot. I bought some recently too. One second."

Naruto ran his hands up Sasuke's back, kissed him again. Whispered, "Now what?"

Orochimaru vanished down the stairs.

"We could jump off," Sasuke hissed. "Off the tower."

"To our deaths?"

"No, to some lower rooves maybe."

"Then where?"

"Then we find the others and get the hell out."

ooo

Kabuto opened the door, hoping to find the exit. He had no idea how he had gotten so turned around. The castle was designed by a crazy person. And now he was here, a small room, with a small coffin set in the very center of it, and two bookshelves to either side, each one brimming with books and weapons and trinkets.

"Itachi?" he said, walking into the room.

There was another door in the side of the room. He went to it quickly, yanked it open, peered in. No luck: it was just a closet, a series of old, dusty-smelling suits hanging, swaying.

"Shit," Kabuto said.

"I actually like the tailoring," a voice said.

Kabuto turned, saw Orochimaru standing in the doorframe, leaning against it.

Orochimaru grinned. "Worsted wool-suits are so much better than synthetic material." He leaned forwards. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"Oh god," Kabuto said.

ooo

"Shit," Temari said.

She fell back against the wall, nearly falling back against the stairs. She was sweating, and sweating hard. Why was this hitting her so badly and not the others?

"Temari!" Ino said, turning back.

Shikamaru looked upwards, lamenting the amount of stairs they had to climb. He looked back. "Are we all right?"

No we're not all right, he thought; Deidara and Sasori are possessed zombies, possibly dead, Jugo is nowhere to be found (a good thing), and they only had three of them against potentially dangerous dark evil.

"God, god," Temari said, running her hands through her hair. "This is bad. Fuck. Just leave me."

"What's wrong?" Ino said.

"Don't you _feel_ it?" Temari said. "The castle, it's--"

"Now that you mention it--" Shikamaru said. "This is a classic glamour the castle is inflicting on us. Heightened sensuality, sexual desire, that sort of thing. Not that bad, though. I can shrug it off. Just feels like I've run for three klicks."

"God, I just--" Temari said.

She wanted to throw Ino and Shikamaru to the ground and tear their clothes off, wanted to put her mouth on every parts of their bodies.

"Why is it so strong for me?" Temari asked.

"No idea," Shikamaru said. "Some psychic people feel these sort of supernatural influences more than other people. Are you psychic?"

"I don't think so."

"Temari, we have to keep moving," Ino said.

Temari wished Ino's breasts wouldn't heave like that, wished Shikamaru's skin wasn't so dark and sweaty and-- "Why is it so _strong?_"

"Temari--" Shikamaru said. He glanced at Ino, then back at Temari. "Are you a virgin?"

Temari looked up at him, eyes wide. Uh oh, she thought.

Ino looked up the stairs. "Maybe we should--"

Temari was touching her hand, running her fingers along hers. "I'm--" she said. She pulled her hand away. "God, just leave me here. I'll be no use to you."

"Can't you just masturbate?" Shikamaru said.

She blinked at him. "What, on the chilly stairs of a gothic castle?"

"Well, I guess the setting isn't--"

"Will you be okay?" Ino said.

"Come on," Shikamaru said. He headed up the stairs.

ooo

_Their first time. Mouths touching mouths, cold on each other's lips. Somehow their first time -- I mean, they weren't virgins before, but there was just _something_ about great sex that felt-- _

_Hips against hips. Naruto leaned forwards, grabbed Sasuke's hair, tugged his head back, kissed his lips. Making love from behind, then making love again, facing each other, grinding into each other, forcing Sasuke back against the bed--_

_Great sex._

"Lubricant," Orochimaru said, tossing it over.

Sasuke caught the bottle without looking back.

"Water-based," Orochimaru said. "In case one of you has any allergies. I think ahead."

"Yes," Sasuke said. He looked up at Naruto, determined.

He squirted the lubricant into his hand. The plan was going to be simple. They would run at the same time -- Naruto would stab a wraith, Sasuke would do what he could; they would throw themselves over the edge, catch onto a rooftop, try and get through a window. The needle would come in handy there -- prying open any stubborn windows.

"Oh--" Orochimaru said. "Sasuke?"

"Yes," Sasuke said.

"Break one of Naruto's fingers for me, will you?"

Sasuke said nothing. Naruto stared at him, looked up at Orochimaru.

"Oh, sorry," Orochimaru said. "A little harsh, wouldn't that be? Why don't you just kiss him instead?"

Sasuke looked back at Naruto, leaned in and kissed him.

"_Good_," Orochimaru said. "So break his finger now."

"Fuck," Sasuke said.

"Hard to do, isn't it?" Orochimaru said. "Not as possessed as we were led to be believed?"

"Give me the needle," Sasuke hissed.

"What?" Naruto said.

"_Give me the needle. Now._"

Naruto gave him the needle, and Sasuke snatched it, turned and charged Orochimaru.

_Wham. _Sasuke struck the invisible wall above the circle of blood and fell back.

"So what there, Sasuke?" Orochimaru said, stepping towards him. "You think we wouldn't take precautions. Let me make this clear: _make love to Naruto or I will _kill _him._"

Sasuke growled.

"_Okay!_" Naruto said.

Sasuke looked back at him.

"I think we're beaten here, Orochimaru," Naruto said. "I don't want Sasuke getting hurt."

"We're not giving in," Sasuke snarled.

"What other choice do we have?"

Sasuke whirled on him. "Sex is supposed to something _intimate_ between us. I'm not giving these assholes a show, I'm not going to do that to you--"

"Sasuke--"

"_Naruto_--"

"Sasuke, I'm think I'm in love with you!"

Sasuke said nothing. His mouth opened. He closed it.

Naruto grabbed him by the face and leaned in. "I didn't want to tell you. Not after dating you for such a short time. But I think I'm falling in love with you, _okay?_"

"I--"

"So that means I'm going to do whatever it takes to keep you safe."

"Whatever--"

"Whatever it takes!"

"Whatever it takes."

"Yes."

Sasuke nodded. He tapped Naruto's cheeks, leaned in and kissed him. Then he whispered, "Put your shorts back on."

"What?"

He turned, pulled up his pants again, clasped them. Then he turned, faced Orochimaru, faced the crowd of wraiths. He smiled, closed his eyes. For a moment, while Naruto was watching him, he looked immensely saddened.

Then he shouted, "_Itachi!"_

The scream went up into the night, towards the night sky. There was stillness--

And then--

"_Itachi! I'm all yours!_"

The door of the towers _exploded_ and a tornado of bats burst outwards into the night. They surrounded the tower, whipping around, turning the air black with their movements. The floor and the walls of the tower began to frost, began to ice over.

The sheer _wind_ from the bats tore the blood circle up from the floor.

Itachi emerged from the bats, came into being in front of the them. "Came to your senses, then?"

"Get us out of here safely," Sasuke said. "and you've got yourself a deal."

"Sasuke, _no!_" Naruto screamed.

Itachi smiled, only slightly, and only for a moment. Something flashed silver and the bell tower was torn apart, the stone bursting outwards. The wraiths were dashed to the four winds. Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hand and tugged him forwards, and the bats flew back in through the door.

"Aren't we going off the edge?" Naruto asked.

"No, we're following the bats."

"What? You're not actually running _into_ a room filled with vampire bats, are we?"

"Orochimaru'd be crazy to follow us, wouldn't he?"

Sasuke jumped--

and they hurled into darkness and flickering, momentous bats.


	20. Chapter 20

The castle began to tear up even before Sasuke and Naruto reached the second landing. Ahead of them, stones blew away, and the ground leveled, throwing Sasuke forwards and Naruto back.

As Naruto hit the whirling stone of the castle floor, he could see the rest of the castle break up below, and he could see the waters of the swamp crashing upwards, drowning the statue garden. Of course, he thought; such a Lovecraftian entity as the monster they'd been trying to summon _would_ live in an ocean.

The floor he was on tilted horribly and he tumbled backwards, fingers scraping along the stone looking for purchase. He was going to hurl off and fall a good two hundred feet into that dark ocean, wasn't he?

Fragments of the castle spun up past his sight. A hand shot out from one of them and snatched hold of his wrist. His arm went taut painfully and he crashed into the side of the stone. It was Iruka-- the man wrenched him up onto the stone floor, and hugged him, crying, "Naruto, thank _god_ you're safe!"

Naruto fell to his knees, his stomach threatening to empty its contents on the flagstones. The sky was tumbling into a tornado above them; below the dark ocean was crashing upwards, engulfing what was left of the castle below. "I think we made the castle angry," he said.

"Apparently," Iruka said. "No big, no big, been through stuff like this before--"

"Really?"

"No, not really." He looked around, looked up, to where the floating fragment they stood on was flying towards the top of the tornado. "This isn't good."

"Sasuke," Naruto said, getting to his feet. "Have to find--"

Their piece of castle smashed into a falling rooftop, and Iruka and Naruto went hurling forwards.

ooo

"All right, gang," Shikamaru said, standing up at the roof blew apart over him. "This is what we trained for."

"I don't think any of _my_ workouts covered this sort of thing," Ino said.

The piece of stairs they stood on rocketed upwards, taken by the wind. Shikamaru and Ino fell to their knees, holding on as the roaring gale crashed into them. They flew through a tumbling spire of flying bats, and left it feeling confused. Bats?

"Ino--" Shikamaru said. "Listen--"

"I can't hear you, Shikamaru," Ino shouted over the wind.

"If we die here, I'd like us to not die hating each other."

"_What?_"

The stairs crashed into another piece of the castle and they fell forwards, rolling along the side of a rooftop, along filthy shingles. Shikamaru smacked into the base of a gargoyle, held on, looked up into the blonde hair and blue eyes of Naruto. "You're not Ino," he said.

"Should I be?" Naruto said.

A voice spoke, clearly audible over the gale: _"You've ruined everything, guys. And I had everything so well planned."_

Shikamaru looked up, saw Orochimaru floating over them, staring down with a malevolent grin.

"Where is Sasuke?!" Naruto shouted.

"_I think some comeuppance is in order, don't you?" _Orochimaru hissed. He raised one hand, snapped his fingers.

Scythe-puppets exploded out of the side of a gable, scissor-marionettes wrenching themselves out of the side of a tower. They flew across the shingles, coming at Naruto, flying at Iruka and the others. Ino ducked to the side, lost her balance, grabbed hold of a gargoyle to stay on the roof.

"We can't fight!" Ino shouted. "Not in this fucking _tornado!_"

"What's wrong?" Shikamaru said, landing on his two feet with apparently perfect balance. He drew his sword, crackling energy exploding around his arm. He grinned. "Just gotta have steady feet!"

He cut through the first three puppets, spun, tore upwards through the second. A scythe-puppet swept at him, slicing downwards. He rolled, came up, decapitated it. It swung forwards blindly, at Iruka, who grabbed it and hurled it bodily into the wind of the tornado.

"These are--" Shikamaru said, parrying the swipe of a scissor-marionette, and countering by disemboweling it. "These are Sasori's puppets."

Sure enough, Zombie-Sasori and Zombie-Deidara came sweeping in, riding on a fragmenting piece of drawing room. The drawing room crashed into the side of the tower, and the two of them leapt off.

"_Really?_" Shikamaru said. "You guys _suck_."

Deidara hurled a clay-bomb and the rooftop exploded.

Naruto went flying. He grabbed hold of a piece of a spire, held onto it tightly as he could as the wind grabbed hold of it, shooting him upwards towards the sky. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Orochimaru flying along beside him.

"_Why couldn't you just have gone along with it?_" he said. "_You could've had great sex, could've summoned an elder demon, could've gone out for pancakes afterwards--_"

Sasuke, Naruto thought as he looked ahead; have to find Sasuke.

There he was: atop what was left of the uppermost tower; Itachi held him in his vampire arms. Sasuke looked resigned. _No._

Naruto waited until the piece of spire he clung to had slingshotted above the platform Sasuke stood on. He kicked out and fell through the window downwards. "Sasuke!"

Itachi blurred and Naruto crashed into the black flagstones, skidded along the edge.

"Naruto!" Sasuke shouted. "Stay out of this!"

No, Naruto thought as he scrabbled to get to his feet; can't let this happen. "Sasuke-- can't let him turn you into a vampire."

"A deal's a deal," Sasuke said. "If he turns me into a vampire, I can get us all out of this mess."

Not.

Going.

To.

Happen.

Naruto went into the air, flew at the vampire, who covered Naruto's vision with darkness and slammed him into the stone.

_You don't see, Naruto, _the vampire hissed; _you don't understand the power Sasuke will possess._

Below, Naruto could see massive tentacles emerging from the dark ocean below -- the Cthulian monsteroid. The tentacles were lifting, searching out the rest of the castle, seeking to drown them, to dash them against the water's surface. He rolled, came to his feet. "Sasuke!" he shouted. "No!"

Itachi took Sasuke into his arms, opened his mouth, let his fangs show.

"_Itachi_--"

The vampire shot upwards into the tornado sky, a cloud of darkness. Orochimaru floated above him, driving wave after wave of dark energy into the vampire. itachi coiled the energy around him, and vanished into a swamp of shadow; dragging life and heat into him, a local black hole.

"_You're so dramatic, Itachi_," Orochimaru said.

The snake-master shot at the vampire, pierced the black hole, and the sky filled with shimmering light as the two combatants hurled downwards.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, running across the black stone to his boyfriend. "Sasuke--"

"Listen, Naruto," Sasuke said, standing up to his full height. "I don't think there's really any way we're both getting out of this in one piece."

"Sasuke--"

"So I'd rather save you."

"_Sasuke--_"

Above, Itachi coiled outwards, and black energy struck Orochimaru dead center. Orochimaru seemed to double over for a moment, and then _imploded_ in a crackle of static.

The vampire shot down and landed on the blackstone. "Now," he said. "Where were we?"

No, Naruto thought.

And this was where they were to end it? Here, at the end of the world, massive monster tentacles careening upwards in an apocalyptic tornado? His boyfriend, his love, looking at him with these sad dark eyes, willing to join the ranks of the undead to save his life? And his own friends below, possibly dead.

"Sasuke," Naruto said.

"Please don't argue with me anymore, Naruto," Sasuke said softly.

Nearby Itachi boiled with cold and darkness, waiting.

"Sasuke," Naruto said. "I've been thinking. I'm not a normal man. I haven't lived the life of a normal man. And-- there are these spells of mine. These fugue-states where I get _so angry_."

"Naruto--"

"Maybe I'm not a boy with a demon trapped inside him. Maybe I'm just a demon in a boy's body. Maybe-- I think--"

"Naruto, don't--"

"_I'm not going to let you die, Sasuke,_" Naruto snarled.

The first of his tails had arrived on scene, appearing out behind him. His eyes turned red, and he crouched downwards, staring at the vampire.

Itachi watched him.

Naruto flung himself at the vampire and the two of them fell from the side of the tower, tumbling and fighting down towards the oceans below.

Sasuke ran to the edge, screaming his boyfriend's name. He looked up, where the sky was tearing itself to shreds, and then leapt off, falling down after his brother and his boyfriend. Inside him, he felt something clawing at his insides, wanting to get out.

Down into the darkness of the cold ocean. Naruto had four tales now. He clawed at the vampire, who turned the water to ice around him, and whose dark energy cut deep gashes into Naruto's sides.

A massive tentacles shot upwards, carrying them up out of the ocean surface and up into the sky. Naruto grabbed hold of the rubbery flesh of the monster, snarling. He snatched his way up the tentacle towards Itachi, who turned and clubbed him off, where he spun and tumbled back towards the water.

Someone caught him from one of the fragments of broken castle. He climbed up, stared at Sai, Sakura and Kakashi. He glanced down at Hinata, who was busy setting up another witch-circle. He realized he barely recognized him. No time now for recognition. Despite their protests, he grew a fifth tail and leapt off the stone fragment, back towards the gigantic tentacle.

Itachi stood on its edge, black cloak fluttering around him. Naruto landed, spun, kicked three times. The vampire ducked backwards, a psuedopod of dark energy extending from his shoulder and striking Naruto in the chest, hurling the boy back outwards. He smashed into the wall of a piece of castle and out through the other side, onto a rooftop.

The vampire was quick, landing in front of him in a heartbeat, and walking towards him slowly. Something in the vampire's eye unfurled and then--

Impossibly, Naruto was strapped to a chair in the middle of a dark plain. Itachi stood in front of him, a menagerie of torture devices in his hands. The vampire smiled--

_Snap._ Back to reality. Naruto gasped, staring up. Itachi turned around, surprised, and stared at what he saw.

Sasuke stood at the edge of the rooftop. He was surrounded by dark energy, and fluttering raven feathers falling around him. A dark inky tattoo had started at his neck and was slowly spreading across his skin.

Good god, Naruto thought; all that hate in his eyes--

"What do you know?" Sasuke said, in a voice that wasn't his own. "I guess I'm a demon too."

Itachi looked like he didn't know what to say.

ooo

Shikamaru struck the stone steps first, rolling along downwards towards Temari, who caught him. Oh shit, she thought; oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

Ino hit next, but she was luckier, not rolling down the stone, but crashing up against the wall and staying there. Even as the steps pirouetted through the wind, even as gigantic rubbery tentacles rose around them, they were unconscious.

Deidara and Sasori landed on the steps above them, staring down at her with blank eyes.

"Oh no," Temari said.

They walked down the steps with identical pace, matching each other's steps perfectly. Deidara was already creating another clay bomb.

Shikamaru had that sword, didn't he? Temari rooted at his unconscious form now. She grabbed at his limbs, patted down his waist. Fuck, was it some weird psychic supernatural power that let him summon that blade from nowhere? There wasn't some weird sort of -- shit, she expected some little lightsaber thing, or _something_--

There was a ring on his finger. It was red. She slipped it off as fast as possible, slipped it on her own finger, stood up. "If you think I'm going to let you push me over, you've got another thought coming, buddies."

But of course they kept coming, being zombies.

She shook her hand. How the fuck did she activate this goddamn sword?

Deidara dropped a clay bomb from one palm into the next.

Goddammit, she thought; I need a sword and I need it now!

She swung and red energy exploded around her arm, the sword shooting into existence, appearing in her hand. She slashed at the stone steps themselves, and the sword _cut_ the stone cleanly. The steps broke apart and Zombie-Deidara and Zombie-Sasori vanished from view.

The steps lurched and Temari fell onto her back, Ino flopping onto her. Shikamaru tumbled back, and fell off the stone. Temari screamed his name.

ooo

Scorched with light. Naruto stared at Sasuke, brimming with shadow and darkness, watching their hopes for a happy future fly away like crumpled ash. There was so much _anger_ in Sasuke's eyes, so much hate.

"_Do you see?_" Naruto heard Orochimaru say. "_Do you see why I wanted to invite him over so badly? Look at him now._"

"No, Sasuke," Naruto said.

"You don't understand, Naruto," Sasuke said, hunched over, the black tattoos spreading over his skin. "I can kill my brother now. I can kill anyone. We can kill as many people as we need to be safe, as many people as we need to be happy."

"No," Naruto said.

Itachi stood there, black cloak billowing around him.

"You ready, Itachi?" Sasuke snarled. "You ready, you fucker?"

Itachi said nothing. He blurred forwards, a pseudopod of dark energy careening towards Sasuke's head. Sasuke _moved_, a blazing blast of flame, and Itachi fell forwards in three parts, exploding away into nothingness.

Sasuke began to laugh.

"Sasuke," Naruto said, staring at his boyfriend.

"Maybe we should release this demon thing, Naruto," Sasuke said. "I'm tired. I'm tired of always running away from things. I'm tired of not excelling. Right now. Oh, right now I could excel. Both of us. All three of us maybe. You, me, that monster below right now. We could just-- we could just take over the whole frigging world, couldn't we?"

"If I let you."

"What?"

"I can't let you out like this, Sasuke. Right now. Do you know what I see when I look into your eyes?"

"Majesty?"

"Just hate. Hate. That's all."

"I-- I do hate--"

"Sasuke--"

"My whole _family_--"

"Sasuke--"

"This demon inside me-- And you're not going to stop me, Naruto."

"I'm going to. Because I can."

"Naruto, I love you, but if you don't get out of my way."

Naruto stood there, on the rooftop, wind shuddering at him. As the sixth tail grew, he saw Sasuke sprint across the rooftop and shoot into the air, all that demon energy shooting downwards.

The rooftop exploded.

Naruto crashed into Sasuke, and knocked him upwards. Sasuke's eyes went wide.

That's right, Naruto thought; I'm at six tails. I've only ever gotten to seven before.

Sasuke shot up like a meteor, crashing through four fragments of castle. He landed atop a spire, turned and flew downwards. Naruto met him halfway. The shockwave destroyed several of the castle pieces nearby, bits of stone rocketing around them.

Down into the ocean, the water bursting away from them at the speed they were traveling.

_Naruto_, Sasuke thought.

A seventh tail. Sasuke exploded out of the water, Naruto pursuing.

Sasuke landed against the castle, stumbled backwards, went to one knee.

"Naruto," he said. "Oh god, Naruto--"

ooo

Ino and Temari managed to make it to the piece of castle where Hinata had completed the witch-circle.

"Where's Naruto and Sasuke?" Iruka said, standing up.

"Above," Temari said. "I don't know where anyone is, anymore."

Sai and Sakura watched the rising tentacles of the ocean-monster. "We're not going to be able to last for much longer."

ooo

Shikamaru's eyes snapped open, but it was too late. He banged against the side of a rooftop, spun off, glanced against a windowsill and started the long fall down to his doom.

The hand that caught him was surprisingly strong, and almost effortlessly pulled him up onto the side of the windowsill.

Shikamaru blinked. "Jugo?"

The other young man grinned. "Missed me?"

"Jugo, you-- you _rescued_ me?"

"Looks like."

"That seems _really_ out of character."

"Does it?"

"Well, _yeah_. I mean--"

"Well, listen. If you died now, that would mean that I can't murder you later, right?"

"Hum."

"Right?"

"Yes, I guess I can see that logic."

"Exactly."

"Jugo--"

"Yeah?"

"I'm almost touched by that."

"Almost?"

"Almost. Come on, let's start climbing. Have you seen Sasori and Deidara?"

"Nope."

ooo

Sasuke stood up, raven feathers bursting out from his back. His skin was almost pitch now, his eyes yellow. The ground shuddered around his feet.

Eight tails now stood out behind Naruto. "Now what, Sasuke?" he said. "You going to make me lose my humanity for good?"

"Naruto--" Sasuke said.

"I love you, Sasuke," Naruto said.

"Naruto, I--"

"I'm _not_ going to lose my humanity for you."

"What?"

Naruto let his arms fall to his sides. He let the tails fall downwards, let them shrink back into him. Human again, he stood there. "I _love_ you, Sasuke," he said. "And if there's only two ways out of this -- either my killing you or you killing me -- I'd rather you kill me. I'd rather you live."

Sasuke stared at him.

ooo

"Naruto!" Iruka shouted from the platform. "Naruto! Sasuke! You have to hurry!"

Shikamaru and Jugo stumbled onto the platform, and Ino and Temari ran to pull them into the witch-circle.

"Busy day," Kakashi said.

"_Naruto!_" Iruka shouted. "Should I go after them?"

"We're going to have to leave soon" Sai shouted.

"We're not leaving without Naruto!" Iruka screamed.

"_Too late!"_ Sakura cried.

One of the tentacles was falling towards the stone. Hinata clapped her hands before it struck.

The only sound next was the sound of the forest, and Iruka's strangled scream of anguish.

ooo

Sasuke opened his mouth to say something.

He stepped forwards towards Naruto, who stood there, wind buffeting him. Sasuke reached out and took Naruto into his arms and held him. He held him as the darkness leaked out away from his skin.

"Naruto," he said. "I'm sorry--"

And there they were, holding each other on the fragment of a haunted castle and it spun and spun in the wind of a massive tornado, while monster tentacles gathered the air beneath them.

"I've screwed this up," Sasuke said. "I've screwed all of this up. You shouldn't be here. I never should have gotten you into this situation."

"Don't be silly," Naruto said. "If I'm here with you-- well, I guess this is the place to be, right?"

"I guess we're stuck here then," Sasuke said.

Naruto looked into Sasuke's eyes, and smiled. "Well. I'm glad you're here anyways. Here at the end of all things."

Sasuke laughed. "Yeah."

Pieces of the castle were starting to fall all around them, clapping into the ocean. The tentacles were still rising ponderously, hideous things.

Naruto looked down at where Itachi's presence had made ice over the stone. He saw himself in it, and saw Sasuke's too.

Sasuke laughed, looking down at it.

"Think Itachi's dead?" Naruto said.

"I don't know," Sasuke said. "Vampires are hard to kill." He shifted uncomfortably. "I can't believe I went all demon on you, Naruto." He looked down at his reflection. "I guess sometimes the real monster is the one in the mirror, eh?"

"Mirror..." Naruto said.

ooo

"He's gone!" Iruka shouted into the night. He fell to his knees, his voice strangled. "All my fault."

Kakashi knelt down beside him, touched his shoulder. "Iruka--"

Iruka looked up at him. Kakashi was smirking. "Let's see if he's learned."

ooo

"Sasuke!" Naruto said. "The spirit-world! Iruka once told me people could come and go from the spirit-world if they want it badly enough!"

"What?" Sasuke said.

Two tentacles were rising on either side of them, prepared to dash them to bits.

"Sasuke, do you trust me?" Naruto said.

"Well, yeah-- I do--"

Naruto leaned in, kissed him, then grabbed him and threw himself downwards. They hit their reflection-- and fell into it--

ooo

Sasuke felt coldness-- the fluttering of chill against him--

-- and then:

The shattering of glass.

Iruka turned on the spot; everyone did. Shikamaru gave out a small cry of pain and surprise.

The back windshield of Shikamaru's car had broken, and lying on the road, in the pieces of it, were Naruto and Sasuke.

Everyone gathered stared at them, mouth open.

The only sound was the wind, and the rustling of leaves.

Sai said, "Holy shit."


	21. FINAL EPISODE: Part One

Iruka sat back in his chair.

His room was across the hall from Naruto's and he knew Naruto and Sasuke were both fast asleep, the two of them utterly and justifiably exhausted.

Jesus, he thought; I almost dropped the ball there. They almost died. Naruto, his charge, almost _died_.

Night was too dark. Even with his bedside lamp on, the shadows seemed aggressive. There were times in a man's life when he needed sunshine, and sunshine badly, and that time was now.

He was aware of the ghost's presence before he could see it. The temperature in the room dropped several degrees. He could barely make out the dark shape standing in his doorframe.

He heard the creak of a door, comically large and drawn-out, then heavy, deliberate doorsteps, then the mock-howl of a wolf from the dark figure standing in his doorframe. The temperature in the room dropped several degrees.

"It's close to midnight," the ghost said.

"Haven't you done enough?" Iruka asked.

"Well," Orochimaru said. "You _did_ blow up my house. Or-- rather, my house blew itself up. It's all rather complicated, _but_ it was definitely because of your ungrateful and selfish ward. There. I said it."

"So now what? You'll leave us alone?"

"Do you ever pine for the old days there, Iruka? Back when you and Kakashi were intrepid paranormal investigators foiling my every evil plan?"

"That had to end."

"Why?"

"Well, that wasn't real life. You can't pay the bills hunting down werewolves and kelpies. And banishing changeling every second weekend isn't a hobby that helps the dating scene."

"What're you going to do about Sasuke?"

"Why, now that we know he's got a demon inside him."

"Exactly. There ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes, girl."

"Stop that."

"So-- why a social worker?"

"Why a weird ghost ho invites teenage boys home. Goddammit, Orochimaru, I thought you'd died for good."

"Sorry to disappoint."

"I need to sleep, O. I've had my quota filled tonight for dealing with the specter of my old nemesis."

"Tell Naruto it was a good match."

"Why is everything a game with you?"

"Because everything _is_ a game, Iruka."

The lights flickered and Orochimaru was gone. Iruka sighed and lay back in his bed. He fell asleep. At least, he thought; at least we managed to save everyone.

ooo

The spirit-world was cold and featureless. Sasori sat up, looked across its mist-shrouded hills. "Huh."

He glanced back at Deidara and Kabuto, who both sat up and looked around surprised.

"Where are we?" Deidara asked.

"Fuck if I know," Sasori said.

There was someone coming, approaching them through the mist. It was Kabuto who recognized him first. "Gaara?"

Gaara stared at them for a moment, and then smiled. "Hey, _faggots_."

YOUR SHADOW EYES: FINAL EPISODE

PART ONE

Haku sat on a stool in his boudoir, running a brush through his hair, staring at his reflection in the mirror. There was a tiny contraption crawling across his desk on spindly little legs, a little metal spider. It scuttled over the fine wood, up the side of the mirror's frame, and positioned itself so its little lens could look at Haku.

"What makes you think you can succeed?" it said, in a little robotic voice.

"Because I have patience," Haku said, setting the brush down beside him. "I've waited years in this body, haven't I? The teenage boy." He smirked. "Zabuza and Mizuki failed because they were impatient. They didn't know how to sit down somewhere and wait."

"The shadow-masters don't share your virtues, Haku. They're growing restless. They're the impatient ones."

"And Zabuza and Mizuki are the banished ones." He stood up, went to the window, and sat down next to it, staring out. "I won't be banished. That's another difference between me and them."

"And you'll deliver Naruto?"

"In my own way."

He glanced back at the metal spider. His smile was beautiful. Everything about Haku was pristine and beautiful. "In my own way."

ooo

The city had been growing for some time now, an indefinable, but inextricable menace to the south, and it had appeared that it had grown enough to warrant a tiny bus station to be built in the middle of the town. The bus only came through three times a day, but it represented something that the townspeople generally resented: soon the city would come and swallow up their leaf-strewn roads, and where creaky old houses once stood proud, the city would erect the series of identical, Lovecraftian clone-homes that suburbs loved so much.

To the teenagers of the town, this meant sudden access to the neon-soaked concrete of the city an hour and a half away. The bus would take them into the Arid Pastures, an industrial zone, where they would wait for a train in a station made of iron spider-work. Below them were factories, and small garage-like low-rent businesses, mechanics, and art studios.

The train would arrive like a bullet and take them into the downtown core.

Sasuke had taken to wearing dark hats, and today as he sat on the train, rocking from side to side, he had chosen a charcoal fedora. He stared out the window, arms folded. He had taken to smoking again, which Naruto hadn't liked.

Sai was wearing fake-marmet fur around a black business dress. He went from one side of the train to the other, peering out. "You're going to love this guys," he was saying. "You're really going to love this. This guy is the best."

"Which guy?" Sakura asked, looking up from the arms of her boyfriend, who was so French, that only Sakura, who spoke a smattering of it, could communicate to him. Naruto didn't even know his name.

"The guy we're going to see?" Naruto said. "Sai's friend? The musician."

"You'll like his stuff, I think," Sai said. "Really, uh-- he's really post-punk, I think. Sort of a cross between post-punk and-- well, he's really influenced by the Manchester scene. Think the Cure crossed with New Order."

"Do I _want_ to?" Sasuke said.

"Where's Ino?" Naruto said. "I haven't seen her for, like, three days now."

"No idea," Sakura said. "I've barely talked to her too."

ooo

The city at night: a bright blaze of colour and noise. As Naruto walked along the sidewalk next to his boyfriend, arm in arm, he could hear bits and pieces of the evening snatch at him: jazz over here, the sound of the river over there, couples dining above them in the second floor of a restaurant, cars driving past.

"I want to live here some day, I think," he said.

"In the city?" Sasuke said.

"In a city, I suppose. In some gorgeous flat somewhere." _Where the two of us could live_, but of course they couldn't say things like that, not at that point in their relationship.

Behind them, the bizarre arc of Sai and Sakura's conversations played out. Sakura was adrift between the lines of Sai's passionate monologues: he would talk at length about whatever was at hand -- Marilyn Monroe, old movies, German Expressionism -- and Sakura would listen blankly. How much she took in was constantly a mystery with her.

There was a chill in the air. Naruto tugged his spring jacket around him as they turned the corner. Soon they'd have to switch the weighty bulk of coats. He'd always despised wearing coats, hated the weight of them, felt like they slowed him down.

"Midterms're coming up soon," Sakura said.

"Christmas vacation," Sai said rapturously.

Naruto, of course, didn't react to this. He'd never had a family to spend his Christmases with. He remembered Sasuke -- he had always been in the same predicament, hadn't he? Naruto squeezed his lover's hand tighter.

ooo

Inside the club, there were lights flashing, and black-lit neon glowing along the wall. A lot of the dancers were in black. Sai screamed when the band came on the stage. "Rock Lee! You _roooock!_"

The young man holding the bass guitar turned his perfectly round eyes towards the crowd, searching for his vocal hand, saw Sai, and waved.

There was a lot of synth in the music they were playing. Naruto hung around the back, next to Sasuke, who was searching his coat for a lighter.

"You're not going to light up here, are you?" he asked.

Sasuke looked up, surprised. He realized he already had a cigarette between his fingers.

"It's illegal, you know," Naruto said. "No smoking."

"Maybe I'll duck outside quickly then."

Naruto felt his heart drop a little. "Oh. All right then."

"Are you all right?"

"What?"

Sasuke glared at the musicians for a moment, and then said, louder, "Are you all right?"

"I don't--"

But Naruto said nothing. They'd already talked about this. Sasuke had said it was a way of keeping his mind off of recent events, off of their fight, and of the demon lurking inside him.

"Nothing," Naruto said.

Sasuke stared at him for a moment, then put the cigarette back down.

After the band's set, Sai came up to them and told them that Rock Lee had invited them back to a party.

"Oh, a _party_," Naruto said, grinning at Sasuke. "With _alcohol_? I feel so mature and old."

"Rock says there will be some people from our school there," Sai said. He shifted gears, tried to cover up his enthusiasm. "Just thought it could be fun."

Sakura appeared next to them, looking out of breath. "We-- we should start a band--"

Sasuke blinked at her. "Can you play an instrument?"

"No, but-- you _know_."

ooo

_"What's going to happen with us, Naruto?"_

_Sasuke was sitting on his balcony. It was midnight, and Naruto thought maybe Sasuke had had a nightmare, sitting there in the middle of the night, cross-legged and naked._

_"What--?" Naruto said. "Are you all right?"_

_"Just--" Sasuke looked out into the night. "I think -- I just think I'm scared."_

_"Why?"_

_"I almost lost you, I think. I did, didn't I? I lost you and I almost-- I was trying to kill you back there, Naruto."_

_"It was just the moment, Sasuke. It wasn't you."_

_"Yeah. Yeah I guess not."_

_Naruto smiled, and Sasuke looked up at him. The room always seemed to brighten when Naruto smiled. Sasuke looked away, feeling his heart inside him, a little lump of leaden ice._

_He stuck the cigarette in between his lips._

_"Are you--" he heard Naruto ask. "Are you smoking?"_

_The flicker of a flame, and the burning of vegetation. Sasuke stood up, took a long drag and walked out towards the balcony. There was a full moon above tonight, and it was huge, bathing his house in blue light. _

_There was something Itachi had said to him once, a long time ago. _

_"You don't deserve to be happy."_

_Sasuke let the cigarette drop a little, let smoke coil out of his mouth. He glanced back at Naruto, who looked beautiful in the bed, staring at him. "Naruto--" he said._

_"What?"_

_But he didn't say anything. Even as he was about to say it, he couldn't. He sounded too-- melodramatic, maybe? He couldn't say it. Still-- he had lost everyone he'd ever loved. And he was starting to wonder if there was a correlation. If he loved Naruto, would he lose Naruto too?_

_"Nothing," he said. "Let's go back to sleep."_

_"Are you coming back to bed."_

_"After I--" He paused, looked back at the balcony. "After I finish this cigarette."_


	22. FINAL EPISODE: Part Two

FINAL EPISODE: PART TWO

_I wanna publish zines_

_and rage against machines_

_I wanna pierce my tongue_

_It doesn't hurt, it feels fine_

_--_ "Flagpole Sitta" Harvey Danger

The party.

It is no wonder the college kids have already gravitated away from the highschool aged jerks: there is something of desperation in the way the grade-elevens and grade-twelvers drink, as if the goal of alcohol is oblivion. At least, it looks that way to Naruto, who sits on a green couch with a rum and coke in his hand watching a girl get carried out by her friends. Carried out, and it is only ten o'clock at night.

Across from him is a poster depicting a shirtless Iggy Pop, holding a guitar up to his left nipple. To the right of the poster is a small antique table, holding up a bent table lamp. To the left of the poster is a clean, bright IKEA table, holding a red lamp that looks new and sturdy. Old and new, facing against each other over a gulf of glam rock and bare chest.

Naruto looks down at the ice in his drink. He is a highschooler; he should be drunk by now, drunk on the ability to drink which the older college-aged kids take for granted. There is no illicit novelty for them.

He wonders where Sasuke is.

It is an elegant flat. Naturo figures there must be an unspoken law about buildings built after World War Two: the nicer the building on the outside, the blander the apartment; the sketchier, the grimier the exterior, the nicer the interior. Rock Lee had led them down to a series of old, creaking student housing, cowering among the convenience stores and bars. Sasuke and Naturo had ridden up an elevator that reeked of stale weed, shuddering its way up. But here, inside the apartment, among all these people, there was elegance.

"Having fun?" someone asks.

Naruto looks up, feeling suddenly abandoned by Sasuke, though he can't explain to himself why. It is a young woman, pretty, one of the girls who live here. "You're sitting here all alone."

"Waiting for my boyfriend," he says. "He left to get another drink." _I think_, he almost adds.

Her eyebrows raise in an oddly predatory way, as if to say: _Thought I smelled fag._

"You're with Suigetsu and his crowd then?" she asks.

He looks across the room into the kitchen, where he can see glimpses of Popular Kids move back and forth, disappearing from view. "No. Here with, uh, with Sai and Sakura and Rock."

"Oh, Jesus, _Rock._" She throws back her head and laugh, a loud and startling sort of laughter. "Oh." She shakes her head. "That guy. Where is that fucker now?"

"I-- don't know."

"Well, glad to see you here anyways." She glances back at the kitchen. "You met Haku yet?"

"Haku?"

"Haku -- _shit_, yeah, he probably goes to your school. He's around here somewhere. Friend of a friend. Pretty cool guy."

"Haku?-- like, Popular Kids Haku?"

"I don't know what that means." She leans back on the couch, bringing her legs up. She gazes at him cooly, appraisingly. Naruto doesn't know whether or not to feel uncomfortable. "Tell me," she says. "Shit, what was your-- what's your name again?"

"Naruto."

"Naruto, do you have any money on you?"

"Money?"

"Money, yeah. On you. Like, right now."

"Why?"

She giggles. "Come on."

What to say? This is a direct order, by someone older and more attractive than he, and from the host of the party to boot. In an effort to be a good guest, he stands up and follows her into the kitchen.

It is bright in here, bright ceiling lights and bright colour scheme. Modest Mouse is coming out of a radio set on the fridge. Naruto pushes past two girls and finds a drunken Suigetsu confronting him. He grabs Naruto's shirt and says, "-- don't like you."

"Okay?"

"I just--" He is obviously very drunk. "I just think you're a bit of a scumbag, Naruto--"

"Suigetsu--?"

"You know--" He releases Naruto's shirt. "Your fault Temari's missing--"

"_What?_"

But the girl's hand has already appeared, grabbing Naruto's, and pulling him from Suigetsu into a sitting room. Three girls are coiled on a couch, talking to Sai. Sakura and her Quebecois boyfriend are arguing in a corner. A goth-girl with a The Gathering shirt makes eyes at Naruto as he walks by.

Again, it is easy for Naruto to distinguish who is who. It is only ten-oh-five. Those smashed and crawling on the ground or weeping come from the underage haze of highschool. Those standing around with sharp amused or disgusted eyes hailed from the local university. The only no-man's land, where teen and college-age co-mingled with equal invisibility are the ones staring out of half-closed eyes, immersed in a cloud of cannabis. Well, perhaps not _entirely_ equal: Naruto doubted there was any pot on Earth to make some of these kids _this_ high, so he suspected the involvement of high-school ages here. With the leash of parental control drawn tight around their necks, highschool kids frequently feel the need to exaggerate their various inebriations, perhaps with the thought that with exaggeration came golden, unadulterated uninhibition intstead of alcohol poisoning.

It makes him thing about the way Iruka dealt with him, the relaxed way his guardian dealt with him. It is as if Iruka was afraid to go too far with his charge, in the need to be his friend rather than an authority figure. That, or Iruka already refuses to see him as anything but an adult, letting him go out at night and sleep over at his boyfriend's house as much as he wanted because, well, that was what adults did. Sometimes, late at night, Naruto feels anxious about it, lying in Sasuke's arms, feeling like he had so much more responsibility to act, well, responsible, because of how much Iruka let him do.

There is a girl in the hallway he now walks into, leaning against the wall, wearing a fedora and smoking a cigar. She looks at Naruto and at the young woman who is leading Naruto along, and says, "Don't tease them too much, Natalie."

It hits Naruto then just how these college kids view him, and it makes him uncomfortable. He never figured himself for an object of fun, but still, how he must look to these girls, the little teenager against these virile figures who are in their own lives, studying and dating and fucking and making their own way through the world.

She takes him into one of the bedrooms, and there are naked pictures all over the wall. "Sandy here," Natalie explains, "is an amateur pornography photographer."

The girl at the desk turns around, and levels dark unimpressed eyes on Naruto. She looks like the kind of girl who constantly glares at life. "Not _really_. Some porn, but mostly nudism. There _is_ a difference, Natalie."

Indeed there is. Above Sandy's computer is a massive blown-up triptych: a vagina the size of a large television on the left, a giant erect penis in the middle, and another vagina, this one spread and engorged, on the right. Naruto stands, stunned in the face of so much genitalia. Around him are photographs of naked women and men. There is camera equipment set up near the desk, and above the bed are three posters, one for _Fantasia 2007, _one for _Fantasia 2004_, and one, exotically, for _Fantasia_ _1982_, this one fairly rumpled.

"Hey, Sandy," Natalie says, giggling. "Got you a potential customer."

Sandy appraises Naruto for a moment, looks surprised, and then gets up and goes to her bed. She kneels down and pulls out a pink suitcase, picks it up and sets it on the bed. Opening it, she beckons Naruto over and says, "What were you looking for?"

Naruto looks down, sees what's inside the case and says, "Oh."

"Oh, get _this_ one," Natalie says, reaching in and pulls out a large purple sex toy. "You use dildos, right?"

At the look on Naruto's face, Sandy glares at Natalie. "_Great_ one, Nat. They're supposed to be _actually_ interested. Fuck."

"Why wouldn't he be interested?" Natalie says, smiling at Naruto. "Care to spice up your sex life, Naruto? You own some of these? Oh _god_, look at this one." She pulls out a candy-striped vibrator. "You got one of these? A vibrator?"

"Uh," Naruto says. "No, I don't--"

"I'm afraid most of this stuff is aimed more for women," Sandy says, sitting down on the bed. "I mean, I'm sure there's some cross-over, but--"

"You _have_ to own dildos, right?" Natalie asks.

"I mean--" Sandy says, picking through her wares. "We have anal beads, plugs... um, the glass dongs can set you back a bit, but I hear a lot of praise about those."

"I--" Naruto doesn't know what to say. He knows he's _very_ red right now, knows that Natalie probably wants him to feel uncomfortable, but he knows he has to pull himself back together. Sex toys are normal things, nothing to get immature and finicky about. Try and be an adult, Naruto, he thinks. Don't let this chick rattle you. "You sell these?"

"God," Sandy says, looking away. "Sort of. It's not a career; it's like Mary Kay products or Tupperware. I bring them to parties and shit. Chicks buy them."

"Well, I don't--"

"This one's a nice one, I hear," she says, holding up an anal vibrator. "Lots of, um, ribbing. It's--" She rummages through the case. "It's got batteries, I think. What kind-?"

"Well, I haven't really-- I mean, me and my boyfriend-- we haven't really started to use toys."

"You've never used, like, a dildo or anything?" Natalie asks.

"Well, I _have_--" His cheeks are burning. He wonders how flushed he looks, how embarrassed he seems. "I have used them before. Just not with Sasuke-- not with this relationship, I mean."

"Always a good time to start," Natalie says, grinning.

"Girls," a voice says from the door. "Are you trying to embarrass poor Naruto here?"

Natalie turns and smiles. "Why, it's young Haku."

Indeed it is. The boy's seeming naive demeanor and innocence has dropped for the moment. With sly, knowing eyes, he walks into the room, tells off Natalie, and leads Naruto back out of the room into the hallway.

"Don't mind them," Haku says. His innocence has returned to his face and his eyes, which shine. "They can get a little crazy."

Naruto starts to feel odd under Haku's gaze. He realizes Haku is one of those people who really _look_ at you, seeing you instead of just looking in your direction and seeing their own thoughts. When Haku smiles, Naruto's heart skips a beat.

"C'mon," Haku says. "Let's get back to the party."

"Have you seen Sasuke anywhere?"

"No. Has he been okay? He seems a little out of it lately. Broody."

"Well, Sasuke's always broody." Where is Sasuke? Naruto looks into the kitchen, doesn't see him. "Well, we had a pretty rough weekend."

"That's no fun. Rough on the relationship, you mean?"

"No. Yes. I don't know." Naruto looks back at Haku. "We had-- we had a pretty big fight, I guess you could say."

"Every relationship has them."

"Well, maybe not like the particular fight _we_ had."

Where _is_ his boyfriend? Part of the charm of being a couple is having someone to be with in social gatherings like these. And now, having come so close to embarrassment, he needed someone to validate his story, to laugh about it with. Maybe he's in the bathroom?

Naruto pushes past Sai and Sakura and her boyfriend. A girl offers him a joint and he declines, instead moving past an orange wall with a bookshelf filled with vegetarian cookbooks. There is a print of the Warhol John Lennon beside the door to the bathroom, and the door is half open. Sasuke is inside, sitting on the toilet. Naruto can only see a little of him, so he pushes open the door, a question on his lips.

Sasuke is smoking a cigarette, staring ahead.

"Oh," Naruto says.

Sasuke looks up. His eyes widen and he ducks the cigarette down out of sight. He stands up, saying Naruto's name, but Naruto is already heading out through the living room, snatching at his coat from the hangers on the wall. As he heads to the door, he turns and says to Haku, "Tell everyone I went home."

As he slams the door behind him, Haku watches Sasuke run out of the bathroom towards the door, and smiles a small smile.


	23. FINAL EPISODE: Part Three

FINAL EPISODE: PART THREE

_You couldn't stop it now_

_There's no way to get out_

_He's standing far too near_

_How the hell did you get in here_

_Semi-naked in somebody else's room_

_I'd give my whole life to see it_

_Just you_

_stood there_

_only in your underwear_

-- "Underwear" Pulp

The rain pours now, clattering against the steel roofs over the chinese soup places. There is still some neon flickering there, casting a garish red light against Naruto's soaked face. He pauses by the steps up to the raised bus station, and pauses when he hears the footsteps racing behind him. It's Sasuke, and Naruto doesn't really want to turn and see him, but he does anyways. "I don't know if I really want to talk about this right now, Sasuke."

"Talk about _what?_" Sasuke stops, breathing heavily. He must have sprinted the entire way here. "I was-- I was _having a cigarette_."

"_Yeah_. You were smoking. I was wondering where the hell you were and you were busy, fucking-- _smoking_, Sasuke. At a party, which I'll remind you, you were attending with _me_. Like-- god, it was like finding you _masturbating_ in there or something-- And you had to just go off and do it without telling me-- _Hiding it_--"

"I can go have a smoke if I _want_ to, Naruto!"

"Why didn't -- why didn't you tell me?"

"What?"

"Why didn't you _tell_ me you were going to have a smoke? Why didn't you go outside like a _normal_ person instead of skulking around the bathroom fan?"

"Why would I tell you?"

"What?"

"You _hate_ it when I smoke. So why--?"

"So you were-!"

"What?"

"Hiding it. You were hiding it from me."

"No, I wasn't."

"So why didn't you tell me? You said-- you said you were going for another drink. Why didn't -- why didn't you say you were going -- I can't-- Sasuke, I can't talk about this right now. I'm too angry at you. I'm not even sure why I'm so angry at you right now."

"So get it _out_. Tell me why you're angry!"

"I don't _like_ fighting with you, Sasuke!"

"You sure seem eager enough!"

"Go away."

"What do you _have_ against me smoking?"

"What, besides the obvious?"

"I can smoke if I want to, Naruto. It's my decision."

"Well, I don't like you doing it!"

"And that's what matters, right? I mean, god forbid I make a right decision in this relationship! Everything I say you have to argue against it!"

"I don't--"

"I'll _smoke if I want to!_"

"Then _go smoke!_"

The ultimate conundrum. Sasuke wants Naruto to be happy with him, but he knows you shouldn't have to change yourself in a relationship. It isn't healthy. Your lover should love you for who you are. He knows this, but it still aches as he watches Naruto vanish into the rain. It would be so easy just to give in and quit. But--

"It shouldn't be an issue," he mutters. "And it's my choice."

Then, as the neon lights near him flicker off and plunge into into rainy streetlight, he says, "Fuck."

ooo

Daylight comes in through Iruka's windows and his alarm goes off. He swings out of bed, plods into the bathroom and takes a shower. He selects his clothes, carefully, examines himself in the mirror. There is green dappled light coming into the bathroom, the sunshine filtering through the tree outside that stubbornly refuses to lose its leaves to the autumn. Iruka brushes his teeth, stands back, proclaims himself dressed and ready to start the day.

He goes downstairs, taking the steps one at a time, and finds Orochimaru standing by the sink in the kitchen, wearing an apron, washing dishes.

"This is not happening to me," Iruka says. "What-- What are you _doing_ here?"

Orochimaru looks up in surprise, looks down at the sink full of dishes, and looks up again. Slowly he says, "Doing... the dishes?"

"I can see that, yeah."

"Good. Thought maybe something had gone wrong with your eyes."

"_Why_ are you here washing dishes?"

"Thought I'd help around the house."

"How long have you been here?"

"In the kitchen?"

"_In the house_."

"A couple nights, I guess. I was thinking of making you go CD shopping. You have nothing here that's sung by Sid Vicious, do you?"

"Get out of my house now."

"Well, I can't. I can't really go shopping, being an ephemeral wraith and all."

"Get _out!_"

"Indoor voice, please, Iruka. You'll wake up Naruto."

A pause. "Naruto's here? He's home? He was supposed to be staying over at--"

"Came home last night."

"Huh. Well then. Can you get out please?"

Orochimaru looks back at the dishes, then back at Iruka. "No."

ooo

It is a rare autumn day in the park, and Shikamaru lies on the grass, staring at the blue sky, watching fluffy clouds. There are still some leaves in the air; a few drift by him in the lazy breeze. Peter Frampton is singing out of a cell phone sitting next to his head and Ino is resting her head on his chest.

"This is nice," he says.

"The day?" Ino says.

"No. Just this. Just-- relaxing."

"It's just lying in the park."

"Well, it's nice."

"You don't just go-- lie in the park sometimes?"

"No. I rarely, you know, relax. In general."

"Because of Jugo and them."

"Yeah."

The other night, Shikamaru had taken Ino to a restaurant on the edge of town. He'd ordered the veal, and she had ordered the lamb. He had excused himself, walked into the bathroom and washed his hands. As he did, a frightened and filthy Sasori, Deidara and Kabuto had wrenched themselves out of the mirror and landed in a pile on the ground.

"Really, guys," Shikamaru had said, drying his hands. "I can think of so many ways for you to wreck my date, but pulling yourself out of an _alternate universe_ to do it-- well, that's just malevolent."

"Maybe not just Jugo," he says to Ino, caressing her hands. "I just-- every day I get up and read the newspaper and see all the shit that's happening--"

"And you feel responsible?"

"I feel like I need to fix it, yeah."

"But now?"

"Well, I'm trying. I'm here relaxing with you, right?"

"That's true. You are making an effort."

They hear it before they see it. It's a limo, crashing through the park, skidding over tree roots, and tearing up dirt. Ino leaps to her feet, but Shikamaru just lies there, watching the car sliding up to him. The tire stops inches away from his face.

"_Hey!_" Ino shouts. "You almost killed us!"

The door opens and a woman steps out, steps lightly and gracefully across the grass. Shikamaru sees her shoes first: elegant red flats. He looks up and can't see her features, the sunlight turning her into a silhouette. But he can see the blonde hair.

"Boss," he says.

"Jugo said you'd be here."

"He likes to ruin my dates."

"Well, I'm sorry." She leans forward and Shikamaru sees her dress open slightly, revealing the curve of preternatural breasts. "I'm here to oversee the collection of Naruto."

Shikamaru gets to his feet, brushes off his clothes and looks at Ino. "Ino, this is my employer, the leader of Atkatsuki." He smiles. "Miss Tsunade."

Miss Tsunade nods to Ino. "Charmed."

ooo

Wake up time.

As he showers, Naruto thinks about calling Sasuke, but decides against it. He had gone to bed angry; he's still angry now and he didn't want to be angry at Sasuke. Things were said that he wants to apologize for but not now, not when his being mad still lurks at the pit of his stomach. After the shower, he pulls on his orange tracksuit. Time for a run.

He heads downstairs and passes by the kitchen on the way to the door. "Going out for a run, Iruka."

"Have you had breakfast yet?" a voice says.

Pause. Naruto turns at the sound of the voice.

The Sex Pistols are playing from the kitchen. Naruto can hear the clink of pots and pans. He backpedals and glances into the kitchen, sees Orochimaru frying bacon and eggs. There are halved grapefruit on the table in front of a defeated-looking Iruka, who is reading a newspaper.

"I feel so domestic!" Orochimaru chirps.

"No, I don't-- Naruto says, backing up. "I-- Huh. I'm heading out."

"Have fun," Iruka says, scowling into his newspaper.

"Don't get into trouble!" Orochimaru calls.

"Er," Naruto says, fumbling with the doorknob. "Right."

This is going to be a weird day, he thinks, and he starts his run up the street.

ooo

Haku is sitting at the school track, drawing a picture in his sketchbook. His little metal spider clatters over his shoulder, stares down at the picture, looks up, then scuttles into the boy's shirt. Haku smiles, looks up, sees Naruto running along the track ahead. He leans back, falling over onto the grass, looking up at the sky. Ah, Zabuza, he thinks; ah, Mizuki, if only you knew how to do it right.

Naruto is running along the track, nearing him. Haku sits up, calls to him, waving. Naruto sees him, recognition flashing in his eyes. He changes course, running off course onto the grass. "Haku!" he says. "Hey."

"Hey you," Haku says. "What you doing up around here? I thought only nerds like me hang around at school."

"Just doing--" Naruto wipes sweat off his brow. "-- some running."

"It looks like fun."

"What are you doing there? Drawing?"

"Yeah. It's my hobby. I-- Heck, I wouldn't say I'm very good. Just sketching the trees over there."

"Jesus."

"Hm?"

"Those are almost-- those are really good."

"Photorealism's something I've been working on." He shrugs. "I don't know. I've been trying to get a gallery together in the city, but you know, being a student and all-- well, the university was maybe willing... How long you planning on running around?"

"What? Oh, I don't know. A little while longer probably."

Haku smiles. "I've got some shoes in my locker in the school. I'll come out and join you."

ooo

Knock, knock, knock.

I shouldn't _be_ here, Sasuke thinks, looking around; Naruto should've been in my bed when I woke up. We shouldn't have fought last night. Shit. What had gotten into him? It's just a fucking cigarette. Urg--

He feels sick. He frequently feels ill these days, remembering the way he had hated everything. Just standing there as that boiling conduit for all that _anger_... it made him feel like he was bottling everything up ever since. Even when he shouts or rages now, it is never enough. He hates the way he hates; how _much_ he hates. But there's Naruto. He doesn't hate Naruto.

The door opens.

What. The. Fuck.

"Oh," Orochimaru says, wiping a wet pot. "It's you, you little shithead. Naruto's not here."

"What are you _doing_ here?"

"I get asked that so often. Come on in. If you want to wait for the little fuck, you can help dry the dishes."

And as they dry the dishes, they start talking, Sasuke mainly explaining about the fight.

"So I don't know-- I don't know what to do," Sasuke says.

"About?"

"About Naruto."

"Oh yeah. Narutard. _Well_, I've had a _lot_ of lovers in my time, kid. A lot of them. Brown, red, yellow, white; sometimes six at a time--"

"This conversation is rapidly getting on the uncomfortable side."

"What I'm _trying_ to say (if you'd let me) is that relationships take work. And sometimes--"

"I know that. I know they take work!"

"So you kids had a fight. What the fuck. You're, what, sixteen? Seventeen? Yeah, you're _prime_ candidates for a responsible, mature, lasting relationship."

"Don't say things like that."

"Things like what?"

"Like that. I just-- I just want this relationship to last as long as possible."

"Yeah. Well. Good luck."

"People marry their high school sweethearts all the time."

"Yeah. But most don't." He sets dishes down into the sink with a clattering racket. "Know why? You guys-- Listen to me, I used to be a scholar--"

"Yeah, what did you study?"

"Snakes. Death. Poison. Martial arts. Snakes. More snakes. Herpetology. The occult. Pederasty."

"Ew."

"Kidding about that last one."

"How academic."

"Still. Scholar here. Listen-- you jerks aren't even into your twenties yet."

"So?"

"So? So that's when people start to change-- really start the change; start to discover themselves. Shit like that."

"And?"

"And that's when relationships are most likely to fail. You court someone for a while, then find out that you're a difference person. So--"

"So why can't someone change in a way so they still want to be together?"

A pause. "Well, they can. But considering all the different ways you can change, it's kind of a shot in the dark, isn't it?"

"You're a pessimist."

"Are you kidding me? Remember how long I sent you dinner invitations? That was nothing but dyed-in-the-wool idealism right there."

"What are we listening to?"

"The music? It's a Serge Gainsbourg album."

"You _would_ listen to Serge Gainsbourg."

"The hell does that mean?"

"Well-- what should I do?"

"You're asking _me_ relationship advice? Sasuke, you're talking to a guy whose last three girlfriends liked to drape asps around their necks and engage in venomplay."

"Venomplay?"

"Yeah, you know, where during sex a snake bites you and your lover has to suck the venom out from the wound--"

"Let's talk about something else please."

"Is it raining outside?"

"No. It's really sunny-- _there's a window right there_-!"

"Oh well. I love thunderstorms."

"So what is it like?"

"What?"

"What's it like to be dead?"

"Like having your television set to static all the time."

"What?"

"Honestly? It's like perpetually waiting for a bus, but when the bus pulls up, you hide in the bushes until it leaves."

"Oh."

"Wait, even better: it's like being caught in the rain under a train tunnel, and instead of going out in the wet you just stay there waiting for it to stop."

"I'm not sure I understand you."

"You're _sixteen_. I'm surprised you don't constantly have an expression of completely bafflement on your face."

"Seventeen."

"Ooh, like that extra year makes a difference."

"So, if you _had_ destroyed the world, what would you have done?"

"I dunno. Laughed a lot probably."


	24. FINAL EPISODE: Part Four

FINAL EPISODE: PART FOUR

"Do you draw a lot?" Naruto asks, feet carrying him across gravel, eyes on Haku.

"Oh yeah," Haku says. He skids along the track, around the corner, keeping up with Naruto. "Most chances I get."

"You want to be an artist some day?"

Haku glances at Naruto sharply, and a strange smile spreads across his face. "I don't know." He laughs. "I never thought about it."

Across the field, Suigetsu and Karin are standing next to a bench nestled underneath the pine trees. They are talking to a girl sitting on the bench; he's never seen the girl before. Haku follows his gaze and says, "Ah, the new girl in school."

"But the school's not rebuild yet."

"Well, then she's the _imminent_ new girl."

Naruto pauses by the far benches, sweating up a storm. He bends over the bench, retying his shoes, sweat dripping down his cheeks, beading at his chin and dropping down onto the grass. "Why've you never thought about it?"

Haku looks surprised by the question. "Thought about what?"

"Being an artist."

"Oh, I don't know."

"Well, you like drawing, right?"

"Oh, I love it."

"Well, what about it draws you to it."

"Pardon the pun?"

"What? Oh." Naruto grins.

"Why do I like drawing?" Haku says, sitting down on the bench, pulling his legs up, tucking them close to his chest. "Good question. I guess- I guess it feels like- well, if you draw something well, it's like you're giving it life, right?"

"I suppose."

Haku looks at his shoes. "I guess I like the idea of making just a shadow real."

"That's what shading's for, right?"

"What?"

"Depth. You know."

Haku smiles. "Yes."

Naruto skips out along the grass a way, jumps out and down, swings his arms. He feels good; endorphins invading his system. He looks back at Haku. "You- you don't-"

Haku looks up. "Mhm?"

Naruto laughs. "Do you sweat at _all?_"

Haku blinks, then touches his face, brings away his fingers. He's as dry as a bone. "I guess not."

The wind curls up from the east, and Naruto stands there, letting it flutter through his tracksuit. He looks up at the sky, grateful for the sun. There's something pure about sunny days that lets him feel better than usual; there seems to be less to worry about on days drenched in light. A cloud moves out of the way and his hair becomes sparkling yellow for a moment. He looks at Haku, and his eyes are blue as anything. "I definitely need to talk with Sasuke today."

"Sasuke?" Haku says. "Oh yeah. You guys had a fight, right?"

"Yeah. Maybe I acted- maybe I didn't act as well as I should have. I got a little angry."

"Everyone's entitled."

Naruto laughs. "Sometimes I get more angry than I should. We both do, I guess."

"You seem to really like him."

"Yeah. I really do."

"Seems selfish, though."

Naruto looks up. "What does?"

"I don't know." Haku shrugs, leans back on the bench. "You don't want him smoking. He shouldn't _be_ smoking, right? Selfish for him to do that sort of thing."

"He wants to." Naruto bends down, reaches to touch his knees.

"Makes you upset, though."

"Yeah."

"So- then isn't he wanting to do something that's making you upset?"

"I just think he shouldn't have been hiding it."

"I mean- a guy hides something like that; what else could he hide?"

"Sasuke's a man of mystery, that's for sure." Naruto comes over and sits next to Haku and leans forward, smiling at him. "That's part of the appeal."

Naruto's smile is so unflappable, Haku has to look away. Jesus, he thinks; he really likes him. He looks up. "God, they're so immature sometimes."

Naruto looks over. Suigetsu and Karin have knocked the books out of the girl's hands and are laughing at her. The girl is stooping to pick up the books, a cross look on her face.

"_Hey!_" Naruto says, getting up and going over.

"Oh, don't bother, Naruto," Haku says. "They won't listen."

By the time, Naruto walks under the pine trees near the bench, Suigetsu and Karin have left. The girl is sitting on the bench, and at the approach of Naruto, is clutching the books to her, staring at him with a wide-eyed, almost scared look.

"They can be assholes sometimes," Naruto says, watching Suigetsu and Karin leave. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she says.

"You're new, right? What's your name?"

She opens her mouth, then closes it again. "I'm Katherine Mary-Starwell Superflower. I'm nineteen years old."

"I'm Naruto. Did you, uh-" He glances back at Haku coming over towards him. "Did you want to hang out with us?"

"Do you like anime?"

"What?"

"Anime. Do you like it?"

"Uh- I don't really- want much- television. Haku?"

Haku looks at him. "Yes?" Then looks across the field. "Oh _shit_."

Naruto follows his gaze. "What?"

There is a short young man beetling his way across the field towards them. He is wearing a long ratty cape around his neck. "Haku-" he shouts. "Haku-" He reaches the pine trees, pauses to catch his breath. "I need to tell you-"

"Naruto," Haku says, "this is Konomaharu."

Konomaharu looks at Naruto. Squints his eyes, then says, "Oh! The fag!"

Naruto glances at Haku.

"Wait," Konomaharu says. "Although I've heard maybe you're half-fag. Which means, what, half the cock?" He laughs. "What are you two jerks up to?"

Holy shit, Naruto thinks.

"Haku," Konomaharu says. "I need to tell you about my latest game." He looks around conspiratorially. "I'm playing- listen, I'm playing Eldar. Now, I know I don't usually play Eldar - I tell you that, don't I? - I don't usually play Eldar, but this time- well, sometimes they get good ranged units - anyways, I was playing against this one kid- he was running, shit, I don't know, Chaos or something - he was such- he was _such_ a _jerk_. You've no idea-" He giggles. "What that jerk had against me, I don't know."

He notices Katherine, then straightens up, beads of sweat appearing at his brow. "Hi," he says.

She stares at him, wide-eyed and scared again. "I like horses," she says.

"Oh wow," Naruto says, looking at Haku.

ooo

Miss Tsunade crosses her legs, uncrosses them, and then crosses them again. She is sitting on a swing, and she is sipping her tea. She looks up at the birds sitting in the branches above her, glances across the park, and then looks at her soldiers. "_Jugo_, you shouldn't have."

"Aw, _gee_," Jugo says, forking over the bouquet of dead flowers.

"Jugo, Shikamaru has done so well so far," she says, sipping her tea. "Maybe _you_ can take over for a moment and explain to me why Deidara and Sasori are staring at me like that."

"Being trapped in other dimensions does that apparently," Jugo says, shrugging.

Ino leans against the tree, hating how Shikamaru can't take his eyes off of Miss Tsunade. It's not as if he's looking at her with lust; rather he's watching her the deepest respect, hanging onto her every word, ready to mobilize and move out at her beck and call.

"So much sand," mutters Deidara.

"As a result of the difficult in the matter of Mr. Naruto," Miss Tsunade says, smiling over her tea, "I've enlisted the help of a professional."

"I thought we were professionals," Shikamaru says. He glances over at Jugo. "Well, I thought I was."

"Never said you weren't," Miss Tsunade says, nodding towards him. "I've just enlisted the help of _another_ professional. Now-

"_You've no idea, motherfuckers._"

The man who stood next to Miss Tsunade is a good six-foot-five. He is slightly balding, his eyes staring out at Jugo with intensity. He is muscular, the kind of firm, sculpted body that fills out the black muscle shirt he's wearing like an orange filling out its peel. He is scowling slightly. He is also grimacing and sneering.

"Who's this?" Jugo says.

"_Say one more word, motherfucker_," the man growls, his voice deep, "_and I bury you into the bedrock with my fist. I'll say a prayer for your widow. Before I make love to her."_

"This is Killman McPunchFace," Miss Tsunade says. "He's ex-military, like Shikamaru. He's also extraordinarily good at finding people and bring them back to me."

"I don't want to question you, Miss Tsunade," Shikamaru says, raising a hand. "But I think we, Atkatsuki, can handle this case on our own." He glances at Jugo. "On my own, at least."

_"I'm sick and tired of your bellyaching, motherfucker_," Killman McPunchface snarls. _"I'm counting down to the day where your neck will snap like a twig in my hardened grip."_

"The man wrestles helicopters to the ground for fun," Miss Tsuande says, placing her tea cup back in her purse and snapping it shut. "So he comes along." She smiles. "Just so there won't be any further setbacks."

"Question," Jugo says.

_"Denied,"_ Killman McPunchface roars. _"I don't want to hear anything out of your sickening, tiny mouth that isn't the sound of the joy of combat."_

"Can we vote on this?" Shikamaru asks.

Slowly, Killman McPunchface turns his battle-scarred eyes onto Shikamaru and growls, slowly, _"There's gotta be a hundred reasons why I don't blow you away. But right now I can't think of one."_

"Ooh, fun," Jugo says.

Miss Tsunade stands up, nods to her limo driver to start the car, and turns back to Shikamaru. "I'm sure you'll all get along fine."

ooo

Sasuke falls back on the couch, lifts his arm to her forehead and says, "I just don't know what to do."

"It's chocolate," Orochimaru says, sitting back in the chair with a plate of a slice of cheesecake. "And _rich_."

Sasuke sits up, takes his plate of cheesecake and idling sinks his fork into it. "There has to be a balance, right?"

"Always a balance." Orochimaru spoons cheesecake into his mouth, savours it.

"I have to be able to do some things for myself without fear of Naruto's criticism."

"Criticism will ruin the relationship."

"That's what I'll do. I'll go tell him that."

Orochimaru's eyes sparkle. "As soon as possible. Remember, a single bad moment in a relationship can spiral out and become the end of it, if left unchecked."


	25. Winter Part One

1

He was meditating in his room when the doorbell rang. He had been up early that morning, feeling that something in the air had changed. The radio had warned that the recent heat wave had died down, that not only would autumn re-assert itself with a vengeance, but also, and more importantly, so would winter.

Around twelve it had started to snow outside his balcony window. Sasuke had sat down, feeling a great emptiness within him, watching the flakes spiral down. At this rate, the great brown world out there would be swept clean with the snow. He wanted to look forward to it, to this winter, to the sledding, and the holidays, and the feeling of relief when it all came to an end, and the trees began to blossom again. But he couldn't, and he hadn't been able to since the fight in the castle. He couldn't see ahead at all, couldn't sense any sort of future for him. All he could feel was a great, horrid stillness, and his friends, and Naruto, moving away from him, towards their individual destinies. _They_ could move with time, but for him...

It was like he had died then, back in that castle, like he had died and the world had just kept going. Where had this come from, this great emptiness?

I have to get over this, he told himself; or I'm going to hurt Naruto. I'm going to turn to him and expect him to fix this, and when he can't I will leave him for someone else, for anyone, _anything_, who I think can. When it gets worse enough...

The doorbell shook him out of his revery. Going down the stairs, feeling how great and lonely his house was, he wrenched open the door, hating the solitude.

It was Hinata. She blinked up at him, looking unhappy. "I'm sorry," she said, "and I know you must think I'm insane, but I've had a vision."

"A vision?"

Already snow was collecting on the ground, on her hair, on the shoulders of her ratty jacket. She nodded vigorously. "Naruto is in trouble. We all are."

He invited her inside and went into his kitchen, setting about making coffee. "Is it Orochimaru? Or Itachi?" He wished he felt more emotion at this news, but he felt only the great numbness. He yanked open a drawer and picked out some cigarettes, fished in his pocket for a lighter.

"No, I--" She sat down on one of his kitchen chairs, looking small and diminished in the pale light coming in from the windows. "It's something else. Something coming in with the snow. I just-- This will be a bad winter if we're not careful."

"It's been a bad fall, too."

"I just thought you'd be the only one who'd listen."

At night, he thought; at night I feel a great invisible hand pressing down against my stomach, squeezing everything out of me. When I wake up, my world is in sepia, and every morning I think, _I am dead. I __died, but no one has noticed yet. That's why I don't seem to have a future_.

He smirked. "Naruto's always in trouble."

Again, Hinata said, "We all are."

Outside, as they both watched, the light snow fall thickened, and then became a blizzard.

2

"Jesus Christ!" Iruka shouted, throwing his mitts on and rushing out into the snow. "When did this happen?"

The blond boy in the frame of the front door gazed out at the snow in surprise. "So much for shoveling the front drive, huh?"

"This is nuts. You can barely... you can barely see the houses on the other side of the street!"

Iruka stomped back into the house, brushing past Naruto. He walked in, slugged off his jacket and hung it on one of the flimsy wooden chairs around the kitchen table. He yanked off his hat and tossed it next to it. Naruto picked up both articles of clothing and went to the closet to hang them up.

Iruka paused to watch him closely. Cheerfully he said, "School might be canceled tomorrow."

"Might be." Naruto finished hanging up Iruka's coat, and sort of stood there for a moment, looking out the window at the snowfall.

Iruka tried again: "We could maybe go shopping tomorrow, if the snow calms down a bit, get you a jacket other than your bright orange one. It makes you look like you're going deer hunting." He smiled hopefully.

"Could, yeah."

"Still feeling mopey?"

"Huh?" Naruto looked up at him. For a moment he looked dazed, and then shook his head. "No, I'm fine. I just thought I saw something out there."

Iruka went over to the sink, realizing that for the second day in a row the ghost of Orochimaru hadn't shown up to bother them. The old house, ancient as it was, felt almost less cozy without him. Still, Iruka felt both relieved and anxious: he still felt like the ghost would pop out at him every time he turned the corner.

"There!" Naruto cried, pulling on his bright orange coat and his boots.

"Naruto?"

"I'll be back later, all right?" And then, with a flash of orange and blonde hair, Naruto was out the door, out into the storming whiteness.

Iruka passed over to the window and watched Naruto's form blur into the snow, watched him charge across the front lawn to the road and meet... who was that? It looked like a boy, also swathed in winter clothes. Crazy idiots, he thought; going out in weather like this.

The snow was whipping past Naruto's face, and he reached to pull up his scarf around his cheeks, hiding his broad grin. "Hey, didn't think you'd make it," he said.

"Told you I'm the reliable type," Haku replied.

3

The blizzard was the quickest, fastest storm the town had ever had. Authorities were scrambling to close roads and get removal vehicles out onto the streets. The snow was sweeping past the coffee shop windows so hard that Shikamaru could barely make out the flashing red and blue lights of emergency vehicles rushing by.

"Does this place usually get weather like this?" he asked Ino.

Ino sat in the booth opposite him, her hands tightly wrapped around her coffee mug, her eyes fixed squarely on him. "No," she said.

"Don't you think this is bizarre?" he said softly. He watched two people come into the coffee shop, looking almost drowned with snow. They looked around the shop wildly, faces bright red.

The windows began to rattle from the wind.

"Maybe I should take you home," he said.

"I don't want you to do that," Ino replied.

We shouldn't be here, Shikamaru thought; we should be in some bustling, cosmopolitan city. We should be dressed in the latest fashions. We should be living in an alternate universe, where a relationship can be agreeably possible for both of us. Out loud, he said, "I hate this."

Something like amusement flashed in Ino's eyes. Smirking, she said, "Then go. Leave."

"You want me to?"

The sound of a vehicle. He turned to look, but it was only another emergency vehicle, lights flashing by in the snow.

She cocked her head, watching him carefully. Pursing her lips, she leaned forwards and said, "In a few minutes, the guys are going to show up, just like you told them to. And they're going to tell you where they saw Naruto, and then you're going to run off to capture him."

Shikamaru didn't say anything. He picked up the sugar dispenser, shook it a little.

"Jesus, Shikamaru," Ino said. "You've never been so quiet before."

"You're right."

"So. Say something."

"What can I say? You want me to quit Atkatsuki and I don't know how I feel about that."

"You shouldn't feel anything about it. It doesn't matter what I want. You don't have to quit Atkatsuki if you don't want to."

"But--"

"But what?"

He stared at her, and again realized he didn't know what to say. He didn't even know how he felt about her. This wasn't a movie, where people blurted out that they loved each other left and right. He had strong feelings about her, yes, but enough for him to give up fighting the good fight? And yet, this, here, in this coffee shop, with her across from him...

It was selfish, though, selfish to think about carving a life just for himself. Not with the sort of shit going on overseas. Something had to be done about that, and if it wasn't him, who would it be?

"How _are_ the idiots, anyways?" Ino asked. "Are they still all weird from being trapped in that alternate dimension?"

She felt like a character in a play, like her dialogue with Shikamaru had been setting up a cue. The door opened behind her, with a jingle, and in came Deidara, Jugo, and Sasori, covered in snow.

"Speak of the devil," Shikamaru said.

Ino shut her eyes tightly, then twisted in her seat, looking at them. "Hey douchebags, what's up?

Shikamaru sipped his coffee. "You're here to tell me you know where Naruto is, right?"

"What?" Jugo said. "_No._ In this weather? You know what you're made of, Shikamaru? You're made of nonsense."

"Your mother's made of nonsense. You guys had _one_ job. Where's Killman McPunchface?"

"_That_ cartoonish caricature of a human being? I don't know." Jugo settled in next to Ino, tossing his wet gloves on top of the table, and generally being repulsive.

Deidara and Sasori looked at the booth, realizing there wasn't enough room for both of them, and not knowing how to resolve the problem.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Shikamaru asked. "When was the last time you saw him?"

Jugo made a show of remembering, eyes rolling up into his head. "Dunno, man. I think it was when me, Deidara and Sasori were running at an angle heading away from a cop car, and McPunchface was getting thrown against the hood by a cop."

"So he got arrested?"

Jugo shrugged. "He took a swing at a cop."

Ino smirked again. "This is the organization you're working with, Shikamaru."

"I don't need your input," Shikamaru said. To Jugo: "So if you don't know where Naruto is, why are you here?"

"Jesus Christ, man," Jugo replied. "Have you _seen_ the weather outside?"

"Well, _I'm_ going to the bathroom," Ino said, getting up. "Enjoy yourselves, assholes."

When she'd vanished into the washrooms at the back of the coffee shop, Jugo leaned forwards to Shikamaru and said, "Listen up, fuckface, and listen good, 'cause you're not going to like the news I have. Are you listening?"

"I'm listening."

"Got a call from Miss Tsunade today. Don't protest; I know you think she only phones you and none of us."

With Ino's seat free, Deidara and Sasori slipped in next to them.

Shikamaru blinked, processing the information. "What did she say?"

"Now, listen, I'm warning you ahead of time so you can brace yourself. Have you braced yourself?"

"Just give it to me, you fucker."

"Remember how you're always telling me how Atkasuki doesn't murder innocent people?"

"I tell you that all the time. I wish I _didn't_ need to tell you that all the time, but there you go."

"Well, it looks like we're making an exception this time."

"What kind of exception?"

"Well, we're murdering someone."

"I don't believe you."

"We're murdering the Naruto kid."

A grin spread across Jugo's face. A second later, Shikamaru stood away from the table near the counter at the head of the shop, hearing his cell phone dial away. Another second later, Miss Tsunade picked up.

"Mhm," she said, before he had time to say anything, "I take it Jugo has informed you of the change to our mission parameters."

"It's quite a change."

"I bet it sounded like a huge change."

"I don't like it, boss."

Her voice was smooth, diplomatic. "Those shadow creatures you mentioned; remember how they were always trying to kill our good boy Naruto?"

"Yes. They were trying to kill_ us_ too, as I recall. Because they were _evil_. Because killing people is _evil._"

"They were trying to kill him because that's how you release the power, Shikamaru. Snuff the boy, save the world. I leave it in your hands, darling."

And with that, she hung up. He stood there, silent, and didn't move or respond even when the girl at the counter asked him if he wanted anything, didn't move even when he heard Ino come out of the washroom and head back to the table.

This isn't a set back, he thought; people kill for revolutions all the time. Hell, most revolutions involve killing. Half the job of being a king is getting murdered by the next people in line. But those are kings, and this is just some jerk-off teenager.

I can do this, he told himself, but he knew he was lying.

He knew that Miss Tsunade knew him better than he knew himself. He knew what was happening when he heard Jugo's cell phone ring, knew what was happening when he heard Jugo speak in low tones into the phone, knew what was happening when he heard Jugo stand up.

Jugo looked long and hard across the coffee shop at him. "Shikamaru?"

Slowly, Shikamaru turned to look at him, tense and ready. "Jugo," he said. "You can't beat me."

Jugo laughed at that. "Of _course_ I can, Shikamaru."

Ino realized what was happening too late; Jugo spun and kicked her in the stomach as hard as he could. Shikamaru watched her limp body fly into the other tables and chairs.

Oh no, he thought.

4

It was colder than they'd thought, and soon Haku and Naruto were huddling against a large tree for warmth and shelter. Haku had taken him out into the woods to go tromping around a pretty area of the forest, a place Haku knew because it appealed to his sharp sense of aesthetics. Haku sketched pictures methodically and obsessively, and it frequently seemed to Naruto like Haku should have been a photographer, given his need to capture life perfectly within an image. Right now, though, Naruto was becoming uncomfortably aware of how close Haku was to him.

"I'm sorry about this," Haku said, rubbing his hands together and looking out at the storm around him. "Goodness, hear that wind. I bet it's knocking telephone posts down. Almost dangerous to be out."

"It's all right."

"Just thought it'd be fun tromping around in a blizzard, that's all."

Naruto laughed. "I'm _serious_, Haku, it's all right. If I hadn't wanted to-- listen, if I hadn't wanted to go tromping around in a goddamn crazy psycho storm with you, I wouldn't have. I would have stayed at home, wrapped up in a blanket."

"God, that sounds pretty good right now, doesn't it?"

Clothes are problematic, Naruto thought; I wonder if a world where everyone was naked would be a less awkward one. Clothing makes you think about what is under clothing, and when you're close to someone with clothing, and they're attractive, it makes your stomach feel sick, and your heart go beat beat beat.

If he was thinking about Sasuke, it was about the mopy bad boyfriend locked away in his big house, but he wasn't thinking about Sasuke. He wasn't thinking about much, really, except how cold he was getting, and how Haku's proximity was suddenly giving him butterflies when it never had before.

"No, this was great," Naruto said. "Listen, no, Haku, _listen_ to me. I've had-- listen, I've had an _insane_ couple of weeks lately, and I have to say, hanging with you lately reminds me how nice it is just to... just to have a _normal_ time sometimes, you know?"

Haku watched him with something approaching amusement and affection. There was too much energy in holding his gaze, so Naruto broke off, looking away. But there wasn't much to look out out there either; just wind and snow.

"I know what you mean," he heard Haku say. "Trust me, I know what you mean."

My heart is pounding so much, Naruto thought; I feel like I'm going to throw up. No boy has ever made me feel like this. Sasuke never made me feel uneasy or uncomfortable; kissing Sasuke had felt like the most natural thing in the world.

Haku was gazing out at the snow with his piercing gaze, the obsessive, ruminating gaze that crippled him as an artist, making him take months to produce a single sketch. There was no joy of creating in Haku's art, no sense of creative energy. His drawings were so mechanical, so devoid of life, that it broke Naruto's heart to look at them. But he was fun to be around, and he wasn't as intense as Sasuke.

And right now, Naruto was looking at Haku's dark eyes, at his sharp nose, at his small, almost feminine mouth. And he felt like throwing up from the way his stomach was twisting inwards on itself.

Haku saw him looking, saw something like reluctance pass through his expression, then he leaned forwards and pressed himself against Naruto, feeling warm. His lips felt cold on Naruto's neck.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked.

Haku kissed him hard on the mouth, pressing Naruto back against the tree. Haku grabbed Naruto's forehead and twisted his head up, so that he saw the tree branches, and started kissing his neck, and down, kissing his collar bone. Naruto let all his breath out at once, and gasped, suddenly hard as a rock. He pictured sucking Haku off, and gasped again. "Oh Jesus," he said.

Haku snickered, shoving him back against the tree again, kissing him hard.

Haku asked, "Is this okay?"

Breathily, Naruto answered, "I don't know," and kissed Haku, forcing him down into the snow.

In the back of Haku's head, the dark powers stirred and said, _Kill him. Kill him now!_

_Not yet,_ Haku said to them. _Maybe soon though._


	26. Winter Part Two

W I N T E R

ACT TWO

1

Haku had a few theories about himself and the other shadow creatures.

t one point, he thought, maybe we were once human. Why else would we assume human form when we pass into the world? But the idea frightened him a little; after all, all that any of them could remember was their existence in the shadows. If they had been human, what had they been like? What had _he_ been like? Had he had dreams, goals, lovers, desires? What had led to his current state as the damned?

Haku sometimes pictured the universe as a great wheel, in which each of the species clung to a spoke in order of their importance. Why else would the shadows want to hurt humans so badly if humans weren't so much higher up on the wheel? People like Naruto and Sasuke could wake up the next morning with sunlight in their future and sunlight in their past, but for Haku there was just the great yawning darkness. The shadows were non-entities, not even real things, the illusion of life where there was none. He'd read once about viruses, how they travelled on airborn protein strands and executed complex programs in order to hack into cells, how they acted like organisms but weren't. That's what we are, he thought; complex programs with no thought behind them. No creator and no ending, just a GOTO loop, over and over again, on into infinity.

Naruto and he had been hanging out up in Naruto's room the other day, studying for a test. Naruto's unrelenting optimism always cloaked the boy like a halo, and when he smiled at Haku he glowed as if he had a light bulb behind his teeth.

_Kill him_, the programming told him.

_Mhm_, Haku thought.

There in the snow, wriggling underneath him like a puppy, Naruto breathed heavily against his ears, tongue snaking out between pink lips to lick his neck. But, the next moment Naruto was backing away from him, through the snow, looking at him, breathing hard. As if on cue, the storm around them stopped almost instantly, leaving them surrounded by silence.

Naruto sat there, breath puffing around him in a little cloud. "Hold on," he said, breathing, looking extraordinarily aroused. "Hold on."

Haku didn't sweat, or get out of breath, or anything really. He fell back, crouching in the snow, and looked hard at Naruto, trying to look composed. "I'm sorry. I thought you wanted that."

"No, no, no." Naruto twisted about, trying to get to a crouching position. "My fault. I just--" He paused, looking out at the trees. "I just lost my head."

Haku was struck by the sudden and inexplicable desire to kiss Naruto again. Naruto, meanwhile, was standing up and walking out into the snow, looking around the woods in wonder. The forest had been transformed by the storm, rendered into a winterscape.

"Naruto--" Haku said.

But Naruto had noticed something, off beyond a patch of trees. For a moment, a series of emotions passed over his face, and then he was running out of sight, past the rocks and trees. Haku stood there, stunned, and then rushed forward out into the snow. He saw Naruto sliding down a snow slide towards a icy creek. This place, a marsh in the summer, was now made beauteous, reeds sticking up through the snow, and the marshy trees decorated with frost. Naruto was walking out onto a patch of snow splitting the creek in two.

"Naruto!" Haku cried. "What are you doing?"

Naruto didn't answer. He walked, like a man possessed, up the patch of snow, and then out into a long wooded area. Haku followed, picking his way carefully through the thick snow, and when he reached Naruto, he saw what Naruto had seen.

It was Gaara, standing alone, dressed in a ragged scarf and ragged cloak. As he stood there among the trees, a chill wind blew up, and spirals of snow gushed up around his feet. He glared at Naruto, hard, but only stood, silent and still.

Naruto bit his lower lip. "What is it with you?" he snapped, with sudden anger. "Huh? Everytime I turn around, it just _has_ to be someone, right? Either it's you, or some psychotic ghost, or some jerkoff shadow creature! _What is it you want?_"

At that, Haku felt something approaching shame, but he shook it off. He tried to think hard about what to do: Gaara had shown up to do something bad, and Haku wasn't sure how to react.

Gaara's low voice came across the snow fields to their ears: "It's cold out here, isn't it? It's cold like this in the place where I _was_, man. Cold as hell."

Haku saw Naruto tensen, balling up, looking ready to move. Again, Haku wished he could think faster, could formulate a plan.

Gaara cocked his head, smirking. "When you're as cold as me, man, you pick up a couple new tricks. Sand was boring, anyhow."

His arms shot up, and the snow around Naruto exploded upwards.

2

It was dark in Kabuto's bedroom, and the pale daylight coming in through the windows did little to banish the gloom. Kabuto lay on his bed, his life in shambles. This isn't how it's supposed to be, he thought. How does a Renfield live when his Dracula is dead? Itachi was supposed to make him a vampire, but now Itachi was dead and Kabuto just another snivelling, normal little teenager. He just simply hadn't expected his career path to end so soon.

He had occasionally thought about wreaking vengeance upon Itachi's slayers, namely Naruto and Sasuke, but time spent in another dimension, especially a cold and dark one, did things to your priorities. Now he mainly lay in bed, unable to picture a scenario where he, Kabuto, could clamber back from this defeat.

Something went _tik_ off his window. He ignored it; the storm had been rattling his window for the past hour, and he was long past paying attention to little noises. He remembered when Itachi would slip in through the window silently and easily, leaving frost along the windowsill. Sometimes he would dream about drifting through the night sky himself, a creature of the shadows, powerful, forceful, in control.

_Crack_. This time the rock hit his window hard enough to spiderweb it. The noise startled him so much he gave a sharp jerk, and twisted out of bed onto the floor. "_What?_" he shouted to no one. "What _now?_"

From below, his mother screamed at him to stop bumping around. Kabuto turned about, frustrated and headachy, then shook his head. "What?" he said again. "_What?_"

He remembered the rock hitting the window, so he went to it and opened it. The cold air hit him like a punch to the face, and he turned around, coughing hard. His chest burned, and it took a moment for him to regain his composure. Then he heard Temari's voice, calling up to him: "_Kabuto_, would you stick your head the fuck out your window?"

Kabuto staggered back to the window and stared down at the young woman looking up at him.

Temari was covered in snow, her black winter coat almost invisible. She had obviously been caught in the storm. "Kabuto!" she shouted. "I need your help!"

"Everyone always does."

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself!" Her face twisted with rage, and she threw another rock at him, this time almost nicking his ear. "Stop feeling _sorry_ for yourself, _God!_"

For a moment he thought she was going to break down into tears, she was so on the edge, but instead she straightened and glared at him. She said, "Have you seen Kankuro?"

"Why would I have seen Kankuro?"

"Because you keep in touch with _everyone_, Kabuto! You're like a-- you're like a goddamn _spider_, you stupid son of a bitch!" She collapsed backwards into the snow and screamed at him, "He's _missing_, you bastard! That's _both_ my brothers now!"

Kabuto stared at her, feeling the cold creeping into his room. He said, "I'll go get my coat."

3

Sakura and Sai had been trapped in the snowstorm, but with it over, they drove Sakura's car through the bad roads and nearly ran it up over the curb on their way into Sasuke's driveway.

"Holy shit, holy shit," Sai said. "Sakura, you drive like a stoned blind man."

"Fuck _you_, honkey." Sakura waggled her tongue at him between two upraised fingers, then got out of the car.

Sai, bristling and feeling suddenly very much as Asian as the rest of them, snapped his car door open and got out. Sakura had been over to Sai's house and had discovered his new facial cleanser, the one with the skin whitening agent, and suddenly Sakura wouldn't let up making fun of him.

_It's very popular in Japan right now_, he'd tried to explain.

_You just want to look more like Audrey,_ she'd said.

And, of course, this was true.

Inside the house, Sasuke was still trying to get straight answers out of Hinata. Hinata was still babbling about coming winters and horrible storms, which didn't mean much to Sasuke. The county typically got bad winters, enough to keep the little town from becoming the tourist haven it could have been, given the picturesque surroundings. The storm earlier had been unusually brutal and early, but that didn't seem enough to justify the doom and gloom coming out of Hinata's mouth.

He was so focused on Hinata that he hadn't heard Sakura and Sai tapping at his window until they were almost a minute into doing so. He went over, slid open the window, and looked out. "What are you two idiots doing here?"

"We're going to start a band!" Sakura shouted.

Sai nodded. "We're going to be called the Holly Gotightlies."

"You want to play bass?"

Sasuke leaned forwards on the window sill, tapping the edge, debating whether or not he should just go ahead, close the window and ignore them. Then he said, "I'll go unlock the back door. Go around."

Sitting in Sasuke's living room, caught up on the situation, Sakura and Sai were quick to offer ideas. "Maybe Hinata means Naruto's going to get buried by an avalanche," Sai suggested. "We should call him up and tell him what to do if that happens."

"What _do_ you do?" Sakura asked.

"You swim, man. You swim like it's water. You swim in the direction of the falling snow, so you can keep your head above it."

"Sasuke, you got this big old musty house. Why don't you ever throw crazy parties here?"

Sasuke came in and gave them mugs of tea. "Because my friends are terrible, horrible people."

"Hinata, I have an idea," Sakura said. "We're all so worried about Naruto, we should just call up the fucker and have him over here. We'll keep him safe and warm."

Sasuke pursed his lips and sat down in a chair. He wouldn't have thought of calling Naruto because Naruto was so far from his thoughts these days. He wasn't even sure if he felt ready, mentally, to see Naruto face to face. That thought made him feel awful. "I'll call him," he said.

No answer on Naruto's cell phone. For a single bad moment Sasuke pictured Naruto looking at his phone, seeing Sasuke's number, and just not picking up. But another option, that danger-prone Naruto was in danger, and so could not physically answer his phone, was the worse one. Sasuke decided to call Naruto's home.

Iruka picked up, and subsequently told Sasuke that no, Naruto was not there, and that, "To be perfectly honest, Sasuke, I thought he was out with _you_."

Sasuke hung up, unsure of what to do. "Hinata," he said, coming back into the living room. "You can find Naruto with something of his, right?"

Yes," Hinata said. "With a locket, or a button, or a piece of hair. I did that before."

"I remember." He knelt down next to her. "Listen, can you do that again?"

Sakura looked up. "Am I driving?"

Sasuke nodded. "You're driving."

4

Kakashi had arrived at Iruka's house a few minutes before Sasuke's call. Iruka had almost felt grateful for the phone ringing, for a break from the tension that always arose whenever Kakashi came to visit. After Sasuke had hung up, Iruka set down the phone, then leaned back against the kitchen counter with his arms folded, looking at Kakashi, who sat at the kitchen table.

"Trouble at the ranch?" Kakashi asked.

Iruka sighed and looked out the window, noting with surprise that the storm had stopped as quickly as it had came. "Sometimes I wish I had chosen a more normal kid."

"But we both know you wouldn't have."

"I'm getting that feeling I get when Naruto's in trouble. That's kid's always in trouble. These days I feel like I should just keep him on a leash."

"We used to get into trouble, remember?"

"Yes, I do. We did."

Kakashi stood up, and went to get his tweed coat. He pulled it on, checked his pockets, and then looked back at Iruka. "You coming?"

"Where are we going?"

"I figure we could go driving around, see if we can spot the kid, make us feel better."

"Drive around solving mysteries? Like old times?"

"Like old times."

Kakashi grabbed Iruka's coat from off the hook and went around the kitchen table towards Iruka. Reaching him, he leaned forwards, resting his forehead against Iruka's. "Those _were_ good old times."

"Yes," Iruka said softly. "They were, weren't they?"

The moment passed, and Kakashi handed Iruka his coat. Iruka threw it on, fishing his car keys out. "That kid better _not_ be in trouble. There's school tomorrow."

"Amen to that."

5

Jugo's knife glinted brightly, but not from the coffee shop's lights. It crackled faintly with green energy, and Shikamaru knew it did this because it was made from the same energy as his own sword. He knew they had both receives rings that let them spawn forth their weapons, and he knew what Jugo's knife could do. Still, Shikamaru made no effort to draw his own blade.

When it came to murderin', Jugo was nothing if not efficient. He was already loping towards Shikamaru with long, purposeful strides, minimizing the time it took to reach him. "Here we _come_, boy," Jugo said. "It's gonna be _sweet_."

Shikamaru knew this was the moment Jugo had been waiting for during his entire career with Atkatsuki. It was the culmination of a long partnership with Shikamaru, the punchline to the whole long joke. Shikamaru almost felt badly ruining it for him.

He caught Jugo's wrist, twisted it, and hurled the man over the counter into the espresso machines, which came crashing down noisily.

"Call the police," Shikamaru told the baristas as he ran to help Ino up off the ground. "Don't touch him; he'll be leaving to come after me." He grabbed Ino's coat from between the stunned Sasori and Deidara.

As he and Ino ran from the coffee shop out into the snowy parking lot, Ino asked, "He's coming after _you?_ I thought he was going after Naruto!"

"_Jugo?_" Shikamaru asked, grabbing Ino's car keys out from her coat. "Now that he's got the a-okay, nothing in the _world's_ going to stop him from coming after me."

He tossed Ino her car keys and ran over to the passenger door of her '92 Camry. Getting in, he thought they'd have one of those Hollywood moments where the car would refuse to start, but it started like a beauty. The main problem was all the snow over the windshield and back. Ino rolled down her window, stuck her head out and backed up. As they blew out of the parking lot and onto the highway, she saw Jugo and the others rushing out of the coffee shop.

"Do they have a fast car?" Ino asked.

Shikamaru shrugged. "Atkatsuki's had budget issues lately."

Ino started leaned forwards, beginning the incredibly dangerous act of wiping the snow off the windshield while driving. Leaning back in, she said, "What kind of budget issues?"

"They're driving a '84 Cavalier, more than slightly used."

"On roads this bad, I think we even out."

Shikamaru glanced in the side mirror, saw Jugo's car coming up fast behind them, taking the turn so hard it almost rolled. "Actually, he might take himself out for us."

A problem, then: Shikamaru saw Deidara lean out the window, something in his hand.

"No, no," Shikamaru said. "Deidara, you asshole, you better _not_--"

Deidara's aim was off, but the explosion was enough to shake the car. Ino nearly lost control of the steering, but managed to get back on the road, taking them up the hill.

Shikamaru looked ahead and said, "Why are we going up onto a precarious road that curves near a cliffside?"

"Because there're no turn-offs beforehand?"

"I wasn't expecting to hurtle down to my horrible death today, Ino."

"The things life throws at you, eh?"

Another explosion against the rockside to their left; rocks and smoke sprayed out onto their hood. Something cracked their windshield. "_Great!_" Ino shouted. "As if my visibility wasn't bad _enough!_"

"They're getting close," Shikamaru said. "Deidara might actually hit us next time."

Ino shouted, "Why can't you have _normal _friends?" and slammed down on the gas.

As they smacked into sleet at a hundred and twenty klicks an hour and started to hydroplane towards the cliff's edge, Shikamaru shouted, "They're _not_ my friends!"

The car went into a spin, and Shikamaru had a gut-wrenching view of the drop-off that twisted towards them.

6

Gaara, you idiot, Haku thought, standing over the gaping hole that yawned before him. The ground here must have been unstable, with an underground passage going beneath it, which Haku reasoned wasn't necessarily uncommon in bogs that had been dried out for whatever reason. When Gaara had unleashed his newfound control over snow, the ground had broken apart, and Haku had watched both Naruto and Gaara vanish into the deep.

It stood to reason that Gaara could do something like that. A kid gets sucked into the other dimension and comes out with the power to control sand, why couldn't he also come out with the power to control frozen water particles? There was even precedence: Zabuza, after all, had been the one to flood out the highschool with his power over water. Haku even had something similar. Mizuki used to talk about how each of them had power over the different four elements, how Zabuza was a child of the element of water, how Haku was born from air and water. Talk like that used to bore Haku.

Now, as he made his way down the hill towards the hole in the earth, he realized that he was going to have to bust out that power for the first time in a long time. Well, Naruto, he thought; in a gesture with some irony, I'm going to have to save your life.

He leapt into the hole. His back immediately struck hard earth and roots. He tumbled forwards for some time, aware that the tunnel was curving, and then it spit him out into semi-darkness. Getting to his knees, he was first immediately aware of vegetation, or vines hanging from wires in the ceiling. Above him were hanging pots of dead flowers, and a small lantern hung from the earth, illuminating the small cave dimly. This is a place of death, he thought.

He heard someone say, "J- Jesus--"

Haku looked down and saw that Naruto was a few feet away from him, backed up against the wall, a frightened look on his face. He wasn't looking at Haku, but at something beyond. Haku turned slowly and saw across the small room, leaning up against the far wall, was a thin corpse.

It was a grotesque thing, emaciated and pallid, its left arm mangled from something, missing its hand. It was clad in red rags, and it still had its hair, straw-like hair that must have once been bright red.

Other than Naruto and the corpse, there was no one else in the room. No sign of Gaara.

"Naruto," Haku said, "are you hurt?"

"Jesus," Naruto said again. As cognitive thought reestablished itself in his expression, he got to his feet and said, "Sorry, I just-- when I fell, I rolled next to it, and it was the first thing I saw. Jesus, where _are_ we?"

There was another tunnel leading away from the room, and Haku could see dim light emanating from that. No, strike that, he thought; that's not a tunnel, it's a _corridor_. This place is man-made.

"What kind of place are we looking at?" Naruto asked. "Crazy hill-people place?"

"Well--" Haku said, licking his lips. "You heard that they're used to be a cult in this area, right?"

Yeah, Naruto thought, with irritation; if by _heard about the cult_ you mean _listened to Orochimaru explain at great length how I was going to be sacrificed to the cult_, then _yes_.

A woman's voice, then, coming from down the corridor: "Hello? Who's there, please?"

It was a woman's shape that appeared in the corridor, tall and willowy. She stood there, watching them in silence, and then, as she came into the dim light of the room, they could see her clearer.

She was a woman of indeterminate age, with shoulder-length hair whose colour was somewhere between grey and what old women called blue hair. In another time, another life, perhaps, she would have had a noble bearing, with a sharp, almost aquiline nose. However, she had the sort of bright insanity in her eyes that Naruto had seen in the eyes of some of the homeless he'd met in the cities. At some point in her life she had encountered something that hadn't left her unscathed.

"What are you doing here?" she cried angrily. "You _rude_ little shits!"

Haku opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say. Naruto beat him to it: "I'm so sorry; we-- we were in the fields above and we just fell through the snow into here. I'm sorry."

Her face immediately softened. "Okay," she said. "Okay. I'm glad to meet you, then. Everytime you get to meet a stranger, you get a chance to enlighten them." She paused, hands folded in front of her. Naruto noticed her clothes now: ratty unwashed jeans, and a long spotted shirt that looks like it was made for very fat men to wear. The shirt read _XFL FOREVER_.

She seemed to remember something and it shook her out of her silence. "Would you like a drink?"

"Yes, please," Haku said, hoping she would lead them to somewhere resembling an exit.

She beckoned them forwards and took them through more chambers that seemed devoted to the nurturing and growth to flowers and vines. Most of them, Haku noted, were dead, brittle little things.

The next large chamber was where Haku and Naruto stopped. It was a big chamber, carved out of the earth, with stairs at the far wall, leading up to a vast black door. There were four corpses here, each identical to the one in the farther chamber, each resting on a slab of stone. Each was in a different state of decomposition, but at the arrival of Naruto and Haku, one of the better-looking corpses _shifted_ and began to rise upwards.

"Holy god," Naruto breathed.

The corpse got to its feet and straightened, stretching upwards, looking at the ceiling. There was a gash in its right cheek where Naruto could see through to the teeth on the other side.

Meanwhile the woman had paused at the door, and had turned, looking confused. "Nagato," she said. "Is it that time already?"

"Konan," the corpse breathed. "We have awoken because one of the masters has arrived."

The woman sucked in her breath sharply.

The corpse turned and gazed in the direction of Haku. "Master Shadow, we, the Hive Mind, have awaited your arrival."

Fear now, one of the first times Haku had ever felt it. Of course, he thought; that would explain the identical corpses. Pain, the Hive Mind, hiding beneath the county the whole time Haku had been there.

"And," Nagato said, looking at Naruto. "You have brought the fox with you."

* * *

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	27. Winter Part Three Of Three

Their car spun towards the edge of the cliff.

Ino shouldered open her door, Shikamaru did the same. The centrifugal momentum created by the car flung them in opposite directions, both of them skidding hard into the snow. Ino felt the icy cold snow sting her cheek, and heard the sudden silence-the car had gone off the edge, flying out into the night.

Ino pressed her palm into the ice and pushed up, getting shakily to her feet. Through the blizzard, she could see the lights of Jugo's car driving up. She turned, searching the snow for Shikamaru.

There! He was crouched down, bent over.

"Shikamaru!" she shouted, but her voice was torn away by the wind.

Car doors opening and closing. Shapes formed in the gale, moving closer.

Shikamaru still hadn't gotten to his feet. Was he hurt? Ino moved forward, and paused. The wind was to her back, throwing snow almost horizontally past her. She stepped back, retreating backwards slowly, towards the side of the cliff.

Then she crouched, low.

The shadows pulled away, and Jugo appeared, grinning wildly. Behind him, Deidara and Sasori followed, looking unsure.

Jugo stood in front of Shikamaru and looked about, eyes watching the cliff. He then turned, looking in Ino's direction, blinking away the snow. Then back at Shikamaru. Ino's hunch was right: he couldn't see her through the snow.

"Did your girlfriend go over the side?" Jugo shouted at Shikamaru. "Did she go smashy-smashy on the rocks?"

Shikamaru, crouched into the snow, didn't say anything.

"C'mon, Shikamaru!" Jugo shouted. "No banter? This is what we do, isn't it? The back and forth!"

Deidara said something and Ino read his lips: _Maybe he's hurt_.

"That wouldn't be fair, would it?" Jugo shouted. "If everything-all of it-just lead up to this? If all I had to do was just reach down and slit his throat? That wouldn't be fair, Shikamaru!"

He kicked Shikamaru hard in the side, and Shikamaru sprawled over onto his back. "Fight me!" Jugo screamed.

Shikamaru lay still, a silhouette in the blizzard.

Green light shimmered, and emerald electricity fluttered down Jugo's blade. He turned away, his face contorted with rage. He danced forward and kicked the snow, hard, sending up flurries of ice.

Sasori said something: _You okay, Jugo?_

"I'm gonna kill him!" Jugo screamed at Shikamaru's prone form. "Naruto! I'm going to find him and I'm gonna slit his throat, Shikamaru! You just watch me!"

The howling of the wind, roaring past.

"Don't you have anything to say about that?" Jugo shouted. But Shikamaru said nothing, snow beginning to collect on his face.

Ino's heart was pounding, and she watched Shikamaru's silent form. Maybe he broke his neck in the fall, she thought; maybe he has a concussion.

Jugo sounded as heartbroken as she felt: "Then it's over," he said. "It's all over."

Deidara: _Jugo, man-it's getting cold._

Jugo passed his arm across his eyes, wiped away tears. He stood there silently, watching Shikamaru, tossing his knife up and down in his hands. "Okay," he said, finally.

He stepped forward, dagger up. Ino tensed, preparing to spring forward.

Shikamaru blurred, splashing snow up into Jugo's face. Jugo roared in surprised, stepping back-Shikamaru flew into the air, his glittering red sword splicing the atmosphere-an explosion of sparks as their blades connected.

Ino was already running, but she pivoted on her feet when she saw Deidara and Sasori start to move. She barrelled towards them, and leapt into the air-

WINTER

PART THREE OF THREE

FINAL MIX

The Shadows.

Haku saw them all now, as if they were a stained glass painting: Mizuki, Zabuza and Haku-the Shadows, reaching down with their claws towards Naruto, towards that demon child. And split, further from them, was Pain.

Like the Shadows, Pain was not a real creature. He (they) was a simulacrum, or series of simulacrum, copies of copies, moving with the semblance of a single consciousness.

Why had he (they) come to this town? Had Mizuki arranged this? Haku wanted time to think, but there was no time, not any more.

It made sense, now, why they'd found him where he was. Pain had created the Machine himself, but it was huge, unwieldly, and would have required a secret place to stay. He would have built it here, beneath the earth, where he could hide it, and wait for the Shadows to contact him.

Haku realized he had wanted to continue kissing Naruto, to go on being his friend, maybe even press against him in his bed, but he knew that that would only be tasting life, living through Naruto vicariously. He saw those fantasies ahead of him, and he saw them crumbling. Cold, hard reality asserted itself, and he realized that he would have to follow through, if he ever hoped of becoming alive.

To Naruto, Haku said, "I didn't want this."

Naruto, standing beneath the cave ceiling, turned to stare at him. Konan, the woman, took a step back, and from the shadows, Pain's zombies crept forwards, hands reaching out of the dark.

"What's going on, Haku?" Naruto asked, looking about.

Haku sighed. He reached down and removed his gloves, taking time to examine his long, graceful hands, the smooth pale skin. He was beautiful, he knew, but it was just a shell, containing nothing. He looked up at Pain, who watched him with a dozen sets of eyes.

"I take it the Machine is here," he said softly.

A dozen voices speaking in unison: "_It is beneath this place_."

"Haku-" Naruto said, backing away.

"Urgh," Haku said, pinching the bridge of his nose. Then he turned, slowly, watching Naruto, the brightness of his eyes, the flushness of his cheeks. He remembered how warm Naruto was against him, the _thud thud thud_ of his heartbeat. "You have to believe me, Naruto," he said. "I didn't want it to be like this."

"You're a Shadow," Naruto said, the colour draining out of his face.

Haku felt his face start to set, felt something that must have been-? Regret? Sorrow? "Yes," he said.

Naruto turned, already moving, but Pain fell on him, the zombies grabbing at his arms and legs, twisting him up and planting him hard against the dirt.

"Don't hurt him," Haku said. "Take him down gently."

Naruto struggled, crying out, but Pain was too strong. _Transform_, he thought. He needed to make the fox appear, but he couldn't-it wasn't coming. He couldn't believe this: he'd survived Mizuki, he'd survived Zabuza, he'd survived Atkatsuki, had even survived Orochimaru, Itachi and Sasuke's demon-form. And to finally meet the end from Haku?

"No," he cried into the darkness.

The surroundings changed, and he had the sense that Pain was carrying him downwards, farther beneath the earth. "Haku!" he shouted.

Haku's voice, quiet and emotionless: "I'm here, Naruto."

And then a great vastness: Naruto twisted and saw the enormous chamber, the sight taking his breath away. There were great sloping crystals, enormous and shimmering, glowing from some inner light, emerging from the walls and floor. A low, luminescent mist hung along the ground, lapping about an enormous platform whereupon a huge bizarre apparatus sat. Above, the ceiling glittered with crystals made of deep blue and reds.

"You're going to kill me, aren't you?" Naruto said.

"I'm afraid so," Haku replied.

Again, Naruto struggled, but he had never quite encountered anything like Pain, who had an iron grip and the literal strength of twelve men. Soon he was upright, his arms and legs bound by chitenous claws that extended out from the metal apparatus, suspended on a dais above the crystalline spikes. Soft wires looped his arms, needles pricking into his skin. Pain's zombies surrounded him, attaching needles, wrapping wires around his limbs.

"_The Machine is ingenious_," Pain said, the zombies speaking in unison. "_It will extract the fox spirit from you cleanly, and will keep it trapped within this crystals, ready for our Master Shadow to use_."

"Please don't do this," Naruto said, his voice shaking.

Haku's voice, echoing around the crystal chamber: "Please leave us for a moment, Pain."

Pain watched Naruto for a long second, and then his zombies turned, moving farther down the chamber and vanishing, swallowed by the glowing mist. Naruto pulled at the wires, feeling the needles bite deeper. He struggled, wrenching, and then collapsed, heart pounding.

From behind the apparatus, Haku appeared, standing next to him, staring out at the deep blues and crimsons.

"Haku-" Naruto said.

"It's like-" Haku turned, facing him. "It's like when I look at you, I see all this wonderful life inside you."

Haku's fingers, touching his face. "The electrical signals, the cells blossoming and changing, the blood rushing through your arteries. I love watching it. It's like a painting."

"Haku-please don't."

Haku reached forward, reached inside Naruto's shirt and ran his cold hands up his flat stomach. He leaned forward, and Naruto could feel his breath against his neck.

"If I don't do this-" Haku breathed. "-I die."

"Haku-"

Haku pressed forward, his lips almost touching Naruto's, so close that Haku felt the heat from Naruto's face. "What would you do?" he said.

"I don't want to die," Naruto said.

* * *

Ino's crushed her foot against Sasori's face with the force of a speeding truck. As he crumpled back, she bounced off him, turning, watching Deidara toss up a clay bird from his palm. She spun, knocking it out of the air and back into him, the explosion throwing him from her sight.

"Agh!" Sasori shouted, his fingers flickering. "I forgot how scary you were-"

She ducked his razor-sharp thread and dashed forward, laying ten blows into his chest, quick and fast, caving in one of his ribs. He fell over, huffing and puffing, shouting, "Uncle! Uncle!"

She turned, watching Shikamaru and Jugo.

Shikamaru _was_ hurt-she knew he was faster than this, and Jugo was starting to gain speed.

"Give it up, Jugo!" Shikamaru said, blades flashing through the snow. "You can't beat me!"

"You're a broken record, Shikamaru!" Jugo shouted, pressing forward. "That's all I ever _hear_ from you! _You can't beat me, you can't beat me_!"

"Sorry if the truth hurts!"

"Oh, I'll show you what hurts, all right!"

The air between them began to heat up, the space thickening with energy. But Shikamaru knew he couldn't keep it up forever. His side ached, and his left arm was sprained from striking the ground. He pivoted backwards, giving ground to Jugo's blurring onslaught. He was keeping up, barely, but he was running out of room. Behind him, the edge of the cliff yawned, and beneath it, the long drop.

Jugo cut a long arc through the air, the kind of vicious, careless move Shikamaru had been waiting for. Shikamaru ducked it and stabbed forward-but he was moving too slow, and Jugo had already twisted, parrying it in a burst of fire and light. The green blade flashed forward, and Shikamaru almost fell backward. He skidded and he hit the edge. One false move and he'd be going over.

Jugo pressed hard, the two blades smoking and bursting upwards with crashing sparks. "How're you gonna save the world when yer _dead_, huh?!" he shouted.

"I guess I'll just have to come back and haunt you," Shikamaru hissed.

"That'd be _great_!" Jugo laughed, his grin nearly splitting his face. "What a party trick! You can watch helplessly from the afterlife while I _murder your girlfriend!_"

Jugo cut to the side, faster than Shikamaru was prepared for, knocking the red blade away. Another cut and Shikamaru twisted, falling. He felt something tear in his side, and as he hit the snow, hot warmth stained his chest. He cried out in pain.

"Awesome!" Jugo shouted, turning. "Now watch: First I'm gonna cut your _legs_ off!" He raised the green knife. "Then your _arms!_"

Shikamaru clutched the wound on his side, trying to staunch the blood. His eyes widened.

Jugo seemed to be glowing. He was lit up, bursting with light, with yellow fire, the murderous passion in his eyes making them shimmer. His knife was in the air, ready to cut down, with more force than Shikamaru would be able to stop. And he was getting brighter and brighter-

Shikamaru realized the light was from a pair of highbeams.

The 88' Cavalier clipped Jugo at about seventy kilometres an hour, ripping him almost in two and carrying him over the edge and out of sight. Ino had bailed out seconds before, rolling into the snow.

With a horrifying tearing noise, the car dashed apart on the rocks and the street below. Shikamaru heard screeching, cars coming to a stop. Breathing hard, he lay back, watching the snow fall down from the sky. "Holy crap," he said.

Ino staggered into view, looking down at him. "You need new friends," she said.

"He left the keys in the car," he gasped.

Ino nodded. "He left the keys in the car."

* * *

Pain lurked in the blissful contentment of the Hivemind. He knew, from the eyes and ears of one of his zombies, that the apparatus was turning on, cycling up, a noise filling the crystal chamber with a high-pitched whine. Naruto was struggling, fighting against the claws and wires that held him.

He knew also, that Konan was busy in the corridors above, sweeping out the loose dirt that gathered in the ancient tunnels they called home. All in all, things seemed calm in Chez Pain.

Except: above, close to the surface, one of his patrolling zombies was hearing bizarre noises, deep crunching sounds. He took a turn down on the tunnels, walking briskly to investigate.

He approached, watching the ceiling, where roots and earth were packed tightly. Faintly, he could hear a girl say, "Here. He's beneath here."

The ceiling broke through and a young man appeared, leaping down.

Sasuke landed on his feet, and stood, fists balling up. He regarded the zombie staring at him from the end of the corridor. "Where's Naruto?" he growled.

"Oh my," Pain said. "I suppose I'll have to kill you-"

But Sasuke had already closed the distance between the zombie and him and was in the air. A flash of movement, and Pain lost contact with the zombie.

_No_, he thought.

Sasuke hit the ground, and half a second later, the zombie did as well. "I thought as much," he said. "We've got to start locking Naruto up."

Behind him, Sai, Sakura and Hinata had clambered down. Hinata stepped forward, concentrating on one of Naruto's socks held in her hand.

"He's definitely here," Hinata said. "But below. Farther down."

"Okay, zombies in tombs?" Sai said. "_This_ is kind of a creepy development."

"Tell me about it," Sakura said. "Why can't Naruto just have _normal_ problems?"

Sasuke looked away, his heart pounding. If he lost Naruto-

"Let's go," he said.

* * *

Electricity coursed over Naruto's skin, feeding down the wires and snapping into him through the needles. He was having difficulty thinking, his eyes rolling back into his head.

Haku moved closer to him, fascinated-he had always been fascinated by Naruto.

He heard Zabuza's voice, echoing from the shadows: _About time, Haku. Took you long enough._

Mizuki: _We shall finally live, Haku_. _You realize that, don't you?_

Haku pressed himself against Naruto, feeling the electricity pass between them. The machine cycled into another phase again, and Naruto collapsed forwards, breathing heavily against Haku.

Haku took Naruto's hand and squeezed. "I'm here," he said. "Don't worry."

"What-" Naruto breathed. "What are you doing?"

"The Machine has to work slow, to extract the spirit from you fully. If it went too strong, you would likely berserk and took into the fox."

"What a shame that'd be."

Haku bit down on his lip, and touched Naruto's face. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I really liked you. I did."

Naruto looked away. Haku was about to say something, but heard a gathering roar. At first he thought it was the Machine cycling back up, but when he looked back, he saw the glowing mist begin to freeze and swarm upward, creating a blizzard rolling about the ceiling.

Haku let out all his breath at once. _Of course_, he thought. "One moment, Naruto."

Haku stepped out on the platform and looking up at the spires that hung from the ceiling. There-! He could see him: Gaara, standing on one of the outstretched crystals.

"You don't know when to quit, do you?" Haku said. "Even in school, you were always a bully."

From above, Gaara shouted, "Oh, I'm so scared."

"What do you want, Gaara?"

Gaara glared at him for a long moment, the blizzarding ice crystals fluttering about him.

Finally, he said, "You're going to kill Naruto, are you?"

"I'm afraid so."

Gaara shook his head slowly. "Can't let you do that, Haku. He's _mine_."

"I'm sorry you feel that way."

Gaara's features contorted, rage passing over his face. "_No_, I'm sorry _you_ have to get your _ass _kicked!"

The blizzard became sharp stabbing knives. Ice shredded down at Haku. He waved his hand lazily, and the ice storm twisted, flying to the side and back up, smashing into the crystal spire where Gaara stood, collapsing it.

"Poor, poor Gaara," Haku said, watching the crystals fall in a torrent of smoke and breaking shards.

Behind him, Naruto watched this, and began to struggle, gathering his strength, as much as he could.

I can't die here, he thought; not yet. It'll hurt too many people-Iruka, and Sakura, and Sai- and Hinata- and-

And Sasuke. Dark-eyed Sasuke, intense troubled Sasuke, brilliant, exuberant Sasuke-

"_You know it's not so bad_," a voice said, "_once you get used to it._"

Naruto twisted. It was Orochimaru. The thin ghost leaned against the Machine's appratus and grinned at him.

"What is?" Naruto asked. "What's not so bad?"

"_Being dead_."

"I don't want to be dead," he said. "Not yet. There's too many things I have to do."

"_You know, I'm proud of you_," Orochimaru said. "_I couldn't have asked for a better kid to thwart all my plans. And I know you've been going through some shit. You're young, you're stupid; Sasuke's young, he's stupid. Young people are dumb. Like, really dumb. Dumb as shit. And they say stupid things to each other. Like-" _He looked into the distance. _"I'm trying to think of an example for how dumb you kids are, and I can't really think of one_."

"Thanks, I guess."

"_But you'll get less dumb. And you've already won half the battle._"

"How do you mean? I'm about to die."

"_Friendship, man_." He stared off at the cascading, crashing shards of crystals. "_You really affect people, you know? You really kind of brought people together. That's sort of your special power, really._"

Naruto blinked. He didn't really know what to say to that. He heard the machine starting to wind up.

"_I don't think you're going to die just yet_," Orochimaru said. "_Too many people are counting on you living_."

He looked up and gestured. "_Even the ones who hate you._"

Gaara had burst up from the collapsed shards. He gathered blizzarding ice around him, bloodied, hurt, but moving with an intensity that seemed to animate him. Haku had raised his hands, ready to fight.

He knocked away the next blast of ice. He knocked away the next, and let the other blast fly over his head. Haku had to laugh. "You weren't even aiming with that one, were you?"

Gaara grinned through bloody teeth, and sent another scorching cloud of razor-sharp ice. Haku gestured, let it sail around him, and then he stabbed out, letting the ice cut Gaara down.

Slowly, Gaara leaned up onto one elbow. "Bastard-" he said, when he managed to speak. He fell back, unable to see through one eye.

"You're a mess, Gaara," Haku said, sadly.

"You were always a jerk, Haku," Gaara hissed. He winced, and sat back, blood soaking his clothes. "But at least I fucked you over."

"How do you mean?"

"You weren't even looking at where I was shooting, were you?"

Haku blinked, and then turned. Gaara hadn't missed at all. He sent the ice flying up to the machine, blowing apart the restraints that held Naruto. Naruto had worked quickly, yanking the needles out of his skin, and had turned, grabbing hold of the metal apparatus, clambering up.

"No," Haku said.

_Get him! _Zabuza shouted in his head.

_Catch him!_ Mizuki screamed.

Life, vibrant and pulsating, was moving away from him, faster and faster. He had to move fast, but he became aware of a great darkness rising up towards him, moving fast, the counterpart to Naruto's blinding light.

Haku turned to face it.

Two of Pain's zombie flew out into the chamber, landing hard onto the ground. Sasake flew through the air, landing in a crouch in the center of the chamber. He looked up, seeming to darken the room with his presence. "Get away from my boyfriend," he said.

Haku lifted his hands and gathered the razor-ice around him, a storm of white death circling his form. Sasuke didn't even budge, just watched Haku with his overwhelming intensity, ready to move at any instant.

_Naruto's getting away!_ Zabuza shouted.

_What are you doing? _Mizuki screamed.

"Sasuke!"

The voice cut through the crystal chamber, echoed over the shimmering surface. Naruto had cried out, and in that cry was: relief, turmoil, surprise, concern.

Haku turned, looking up at him.

But Naruto wasn't looking back. He was perched on one of the crystals, staring at Sasuke, staring at him with shining eyes. The reality of it cut Haku in two. This was the truth: Naruto was in love with Sasuke, and Sasuke was in love with Naruto, and Haku had only been fooling himself thinking otherwise. Haku didn't even exist. The fierce reality of their love cast a blinding light, banishing shadows and doubts: even Haku harvested the spirit of a thousand Narutos, he would never be as real as what they had.

Stark, diminished, he staggered backwards.

"Naruto," Sasuke said, running across the chamber. Naruto leapt down to the floor, getting up, watching Sasuke with bright eyes.

"Jesus, are you all right?" Sasuke asked.

The words were like spears, piercing Haku.

"I think I'm okay," Naruto said.

_He's right there, Haku!_ Zabuza was screaming. _Cut him down_.

Haku stumbled backwards, reeling. The cloud of ice soaked the air around him, deadly. He stared at Naruto for a long time, seconds bleeding out into seconds. And then, with a low sigh, he let his arms drop. The cloud of ice shuddered inwards, piercing his body.

It didn't hurt-how could it hurt? He wasn't even anything, wasn't real. And you couldn't hurt anything that wasn't real, because it didn't exist.

Haku vanished, becoming shadows.

"Sasuke," Naruto said.

Sasuke nodded, his dark eyes flashing with relief. "Naruto," he said.

NEXT: EPILOGUE


	28. Epilogue

The storm had passed by the morning, leaving the town blanketed with snow. Sunlight came next, shining down on the little train station that stood on the outskirts of town.

The train was shuddering away, compressing the air in front of it and blasting the snow out through the sunlight, spiraling into Sasuke's face. He grimaced, squinting, watching the train rattle out away from the platform. He could see Iruka, retreating, his face looking out from one of the windows, looking back at them.

"Thank god," Naruto said, waving and craning his head out to watch the train. "I swear, Iruka has never taken a vacation in his life. He'd better enjoy this."

"Some people live and breathe work," Sasuke said, brushing the snow off his coat.

Naruto looked back at him with an amused smile, and Sasuke tried to ignore it.

Only a mother and her small daughter had stepped off the train when it arrived, and they were wandering off up the cold stone steps towards the exit. Naruto watched them leave. He glanced back at Sasuke.

"For a second," Sasuke said, "I thought Iruka wasn't going to go."

Naruto threw back his head dramatically and slumped. "_Tell me about it_," he sighed. He straightened up, grinning. "I swear, you and I were gonna haveta shove him in, Kakashi pullin' on his arms."

Kakashi had stood by the train, eyes smiling, snow whirling about his tweed coat, watching Iruka rattle nervously at Naruto: "Now, we're only going to be gone for two week. Emergency numbers are on the fridge. Emergency cash is in an envelope just inside the freezer-"

"I'll be _fine_, Iruka," Naruto had said, laughing. "I mean, I made it this far; I think I can survive a couple more weeks by myself, at least."

Of course, that only made Iruka more nervous, but Kakashi had managed to bundle him onto the train anyways.

Now alone on the train platform, with the snow fluttering through the sunlight, Naruto entwined his fingers with Sasuke's and pressed him back against the cold wall. Their noses touching, Naruto said, "Two weeks with the house to ourselves."

"You just know something will happen," Sasuke said.

"Don't I know it." Naruto pinchedim in the side. "I'm a recipe for trouble."

Sasuke stared into his eyes, and then smirked, despite himself. Around them, the snow whirled, and swung upwards into the sky, over the town.

It swept upwards over the yards and houses, and came down, lingerinh intently over the hair of Temari, who stood outside the town hospital, fidgeting over her cigarette.

She watched the ash dwindle down, and then she flicked the butt onto the road. Squashing it carefully, she turned and made her way into the hospital, through emerg, into one of the care wards, where Kankuro and Kabuto were seated.

The care wards were colour coded; the walls and shelves were lime, and even the blankets were a light green. The sunlight was shining here too, streaming through the window. It touched, lightly, the sleeping form of Gaara, slumped in the hospital bed, bandaged and beat-up.

"Any change?" Temari asked, walking in.

Without looking up, Kankuro shook his head.

Temari nodded. There was a kind of symmetry here: Gaara had originally vanished under the eye of Naruto and Sasuke, and they were the ones who had brought him out of the catacombs beneath the snowy fields just out of town. Gaara the bully. Gaara her psychotic brother.

Temari sat down next to Kankuro, and let out all her breath.

Beside her, Kabuto said, "I'm going to leave."

Temari looked up, surprised. Kabuto looked tired, staring at the ground, bags under his eyes, a pale, pinched look to his face. She wondered how tired _she_ looked.

She smiled a thin, wan smile. "I told you you didn't have to stay, man. You were up, like, all night with me, after all."

They'd searched practically the whole town for Kankuro, and eventually found him at the train station, seated, head in his hands, half frozen.

"No," Kabuto replied. "No, I mean, I think I'm going to leave town. Go somewhere else."

"Where?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. I just feel like there's nothing left for me here. I need some time to think."

A knock on the door. Temari looked up and saw, to her surprise, Ino, standing in the doorway, looking concerned.

"Ino," Temari said. "What're you doing here?"

She shrugged, and replied, "Here with a friend. Thought I'd pop by." She gestured to Gaara. "Where'd they find him?"

"God, I don't know," Temari said, looking away. "There were caves or something under those fields out by the bridge. Naruto and Sasuke found him."

"Mam," Ino said, shaking her head. "Weird shit just happen around them, huh?"

"Tell me about it," Kankuro said, staring at the floor.

Ino and Temari chatted a little, and Gaara stayed unconscious for all of it. Finally, Ino left them, and went down to the emergency wards, where Sasori sat on the edge of his bed. He flinched when he saw her.

"Hey, lady," Shikamaru said, from where he was standing, leaning against the wall. "What's the news?"

"My insurance?" she said. "Likely to come through!" She jumped happily into the air. "Police report said the car spun out on the snow. Whole thing's a write-off, of course. How's Deidara?"

"Doctor just talked to us," Shikamaru said. "You'll have to guess what he said, though. You won't believe it."

"Alive and well?" Ino said. "Without a scratch on him?"

He laughed. "You're actually pretty close, believe it or not. He's been moved to the burn ward. They're just minor, though. Looks like his clay bird blew up far enough away from him, and the blast hit him before the heat did."

Sasori shook his head in wonder. "Threw 'em clear," he said, staring into space.

Shikamaru nodded. "Kid's got a pretty bad concussion though." He stood up straighter. "Oh yeah! You almost missed it."

Ino leaned against the doorframe, smirking. "Yeah? What did I almost miss?"

"Shikamaru..." Sasori said unhappily.

Shikamaru gestured to him. "Sasori was about to apologize to me. To us, in fact."

"Really," Ino said. "Just an apology?"

"It's not much, but what else does he have?"

"Okay, okay," Sasori said. "I'm sorry we attacked you. We got the order from Miss Tsunade, and then Jugo went nuts, and I guess we were caught up in the moment-_Ow!_"

Shikamaru had smacked him upside the head.

"What was that for?" Sasori asked, cringing.

"Sorry, I was just caught up in the moment."

"Geez," Sasori muttered, rubbing his head.

Shikamaru stood up and grabbed his jacket. To Ino, he said, "Ready to go?"

She sighed. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"What?" Sasori asked. "Where are you going? What about us?"

"What about you?" Shikamaru asked. "I don't work for Atkatsuki any more, remember?"

"So what do we do?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "You guys are in charge now. You'll have to figure it out."

"What?" Sasori said, but Shikamaru and Ino were already walking away, into the emergency ward, and out into the sunlight.

"It's stopped snowing," Ino said, looking about.

"You know," Shikamaru said, staring off at the sky. "I don't know what I'm going to do now. At all."

"Yeah, you were always dumb that way."

"Dumb what way?"

Ino smirked at him, and then leaned forward and said, "There are more ways to help save the world than carrying around a sword, jerk."

"Name one."

"How about I name dozens? Charity organizations, good journalism, feminism, environmental initiatives, politics, shelters, watchdog orgs, activism-give me a bit and I'll name a few more."

Shikamaru grimaced. "None of those fix the world's problems."

"Yes, Shikamaru, there is no quick fix." She looked away, smiling. "But it's up to us to do what we can.-_There's the bus!_"

The town's lone public transit, a small white shuttlebus, had pulled up to the curb. Shikamaru watched Ino bounce away towards it. He was about to follow, but looked up and saw something.

He was looking across the way and thought he saw two figures walking down the sidewalk, a blonde boy in an orange down jacket and another boy in an elegantly slender black coat. The blonde boy was running ahead, animatedly talking about something, turning back to shout at the other boy. The boy in black continued walking slowly, a steady precise gait.

Shikamaru had to smile. The two of them seemed bigger than the rest of them, somehow, giants. Two demons, having found each other, holding each other in check.

He turned, and followed Ino, running after her.

* * *

Sai was talking: "And then I said, '_Honey_, you are a _mess_. Getchorself _togethah_.'"

Hinaka was listening, eyes wide. "So what'd she say back?"

Sai waved the air dismissively. "She was already too far away; she didn't hear me. But technically, I had the last word, so-point goes to me."

Sakura heard her house's back door bang open, and she turned, peering through her basement's dim light. Sasuke appeared first, stepping down the stairs, a thin black silhouette. Naruto had a bit more colour, bouncing down in his orange jacket.

"_There_ we go!" she said. "The last thing our band needs: our fans."

"Whoo!" Naruto cried, throwing up his hands.

Sakura plugged her guitar into the amp and looked out at her band-Hinaka standing there, holding a bass guitar nervously, having no idea what she was doing, and Sai, at his Casio.

"What, no drums?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura pointed to a black box lying on the ground. "The part of the drummer will be played by my mom's drum machine. We're be going for a kind of electro, Le Tigre, new wave kind of sound."

"I'm into it," Naruto said. "Hit me with your good vibes."

"Do you guys have any songs yet?" Sasuke said, sitting down in the bean bag chair in the corner.

"Well, sort of," Sakura said, glancing back at Sai. "We've got kind of a-"

"It's a chord progression, really," Sai said.

"And I'm not very good at all," Hinaka added.

"Doesn't matter!" Sakura shouted, laughing. "It's like Kathi Wilcox once said: it doesn't matter if you suck; you should still start a band, because then people can hear you get better."

"That was Kathi Wilcox?" Sai asked. "I thought that it was Molly Neuman."

"Or maybe it was neither!" Sakura said. "Doesn't matter! What matters is that we look into our hearts, find the music there, and change the face of the world with it."

"With our proto-punk nonsense?"

"_Exactly!_"

Sasuke looked over at Naruto, who was sitting down next to him. He thought about the past night, at his place, after Iruka had taken Gaara to the hospital. There, inside Sasuke's bedroom, Naruto had broken down into tears.

"I'm sorry-" he had said. "I've been stupid. I've been taking stuff out on you, or _something_-I don't know-"

"My god, no," Sasuke said. "I've been so stupid, too. I just-things have been traumatic for us, that's the best way to describe it-"

Naruto had kissed him then.

Sex with Naruto always felt like Sasuke was discovering something. Naruto had turned, pressing his cheek against the pillow, his mouth open in a little cat-like smile, his eyes closed, as Sasuke pushed into him. Sasuke had gasped, watching the shape of Naruto's nose, sweat beading on his forehead, watching the shape of Naruto's lips. Sasuke leaned forward, pressing his own face into the pillow, his breath hot against Naruto's neck. Naruto had reached up then and grabbed hold of Sasuke's head-

Things were going to be okay, Sasuke thought. Trouble followed them; that was sort of the way of things-Orochimaru would be back, maybe, and stronger. Other shadows could be following. Perhaps another vampire would be drawn to the town, or Itachi could crawl back from the ashes.

And there would be the real problems: the end of highschool, college, life. But they were strong, strong enough to weather those-

"Okay, get that drum machine going," Sakura said.

"I'm excited," Naruto said. "Give us a beat we can dance to."

Sasuke laughed.

"If I just play the same bass line over and over again," Hinaka said quietly; "please don't judge me?"

"No judgment here," Sakura said, tuning her guitar. "This is a stress-free set. Except for Sai. We're gonna judge the crap out of Sai."

"Good," Sai said, setting up the drum machine to give out a staccato knicker-knack of a beat. "'Cause I'm flawless."

"Okay," Sakura said, into her little microphone. "We're gonna give you a bit of a jam sesh today."

"Whoo!" Naruto shouted.

"Ready," Hinaka said.

"Ready," Sai said.

"Cool beans," Sakura said. "Okay, this is our first song. It's called, 'Your Shadow Eyes'."

They began to play.

* * *

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